


Little One

by LadyPaige



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Because canon ones suck, Bodyguard!Slade, Bratva, Different Rules of the Mirakuru, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Marvel Cameos, Mirakuru, Mpreg, Solntsevskaya Bratva, pregnant!Oliver
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-13
Updated: 2014-10-09
Packaged: 2018-01-01 10:18:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 60,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1043650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyPaige/pseuds/LadyPaige
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver returned to Starling City, only to find out he was pregnant, by Slade no less. He was happy to be a father, he knew he would have to do it alone but then, after being attacked, he was make to have a bodyguard. Imagine his shock when he saw the dark haired Australian at his door.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Matter of Change

**Author's Note:**

> This was for Arrow Kink Meme on livejournal.  
> "Oliver comes back form the island pregnant with Slade's baby. And have flashbacks on how they got together and make the baby."

Hearing Oliver speak such fluent Russian was an interesting experience… Everyone at the dinner table and Raisa knew that it wasn't something Oliver should have known. It must have been a one-off, a fluke. Knowing a word or two in Chinese would make sense; Oliver had to wait a week in China after all, to be identified and questioned about what had happened until he was able to return home. But Russian? Why Russian? And, most importantly, how?

The weirdest moment came the following night at his welcome home/no longer dead party. Oliver stood up on the stage, said thank you to everyone for coming and went about his usually fun self until Tommy held up a shot of tequila for him.

Oliver reached out to grab it absentmindedly, but when he clued in on the fact that it was a shot glass he'd pulled his hand back sharply, looking at the liquid like it was poison. "No, I'm good."

Tommy looked at him in confusion, the whole room was.

"I've spent five years without alcohol," he said, looking at the glass before looking away and sighing dramatically, "I'd probably pass out on the dance floor after five minutes; I'm probably such a lightweight now."

The crowd laughed.

"But I'll admit, being sober sucks!" He yelled and the crowd cheered in agreement.

"So, are we going to drink then?" He called out to the crowd.

"Yes!"

"Then enjoy tonight because the booze is on the house!" He grinned brightly, jumping down from the stage. Quickly, but with a big happy look on his face, he moved his way through the crowd and into the hall.

Tommy dumped his own shot glass of tequila and followed his best friend. He would have never believed his friend could lie and act like that had he not seen the look of horror on the blonde's face. Also what was with that look? What was it about alcohol that freaked Oliver out so much?

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\- Hours Before -

"You can't be serious?" Oliver told the doctor, "You just can't."

"I'm sorry if the news is shocking to you." The doctor said, pulling out his own padded computer chair and wheeling it over to Oliver, "Please have a seat, Mr. Queen."

It wasn't the same doctor Oliver had met and been examined by when he returned home. The man looked to be in his late thirties, his hair was a sandy blonde and his eyes a shade of honey brown. He seemed polite natured and calm. He was a pediatrician, the pink scrubs told Oliver as much when he walked into the room.

Oliver felt his stomach sink the moment he saw the man and the doctor could see this, seconds later he told Oliver.

"I can't believe I'm pregnant," Oliver said in surprise as he pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. He moved to the window, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Oliver," the doctor called, somehow sounding both stern and gentle in the same breath, "What's done is done. So please sit down, we'll figure this out, okay?"

Oliver looked back, biting his lip in contemplation, before nodding and moving to sit down again.

"Now, I should point out that some luck has shined down on you, Mr. Queen. The blood that goes for testing down at our lab is only labelled via numbers, meaning that being a rare case of male pregnancy, your result went straight to me and only me." He took a seat on one of the wooden patient chairs right next to Oliver for a more private talk. "I can't be certain completely with these results, but I estimate from the lab work that you've been pregnant for roughly three to four weeks, which means it didn't happen in Starling City."

Oliver groaned, running his hand through his hair.

"I won't tell a soul and as delicately as I can put this; what do you want to do… whether keeping the baby, adopting it out or aborting it… is up to you." He stood up from the chair and walked over to his desk, "Until your mind has been made up," he held a hand up to Oliver to keep him from speaking just yet, "and I want you to really think about this, it is a baby, your baby, after all." He took a sizeable white bottle from his drawer that rattled from the pills inside, "As I said, until you've decided on the correct course for your situation, you will need to take these." He held the bottle out to Oliver, "They contain a high mixture of vitamins and minerals that will help the baby's development in the early stages."

"Thank you," Oliver said softly, taking the bottle and rolling it back and forth in his palms, listening to it rattle.

"As you may or may not know, male pregnancies have a high risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. For the sake of possibly wanting to keep it, I strongly suggest that you take them." He told the younger man.

Oliver nodded, knowing full well that having a baby as a man was near impossible. Not near enough, apparently.

"Have you told the father?"

Oliver shook his head, a horrible cold feeling welling up in his stomach.

"Okay." Reaching over to his desk he grabbed a small white card and a ballpoint pen, writing on the card before passing it to Oliver.

The card said 'Starling General Hospital, Head of Pediatrics, William C. Clark' and had what looked to be his office number, under that however was a mobile number in pen ink.

"Due to your status in Starling City, I imagine that you wouldn't want anyone to know until you have made up your mind." He explained, "So, feel free to call me in a few days with your decision and we can take it from there."

"Is, um," Oliver glanced at the doctor from the corner of his eye, "Is it healthy?"

The doctor smiled, as if that was just what he wanted to hear. "Your blood indicates it is. The first trimester, which lasts until the twelfth week, is where the baby is just starting to develop and the risk of a miscarriage is rather high, especially in males, which is why those pills are vital." He said as he pointed to the bottle, "They will give the baby the vital nutrients it needs for those weeks to help shore up the baby's health and growth. Afterwards, if you decide to keep the baby, additional dosages and the need for other drugs will be necessary. Also, your diet is very important."

Oliver nodded, waiting for the doctor to go on.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oliver sat on the first step of the stairs leading down, resting his head on the cool metal hand railing. He felt flushed and he was starving, having not felt up to eating before, he would have to eat soon for the baby's sake. His hand wrapped around his belly, his body leaning against the wall.

Few of the male population were able to produce eggs, let alone fertile eggs and those eggs were only produced once every two months. Plus, the man had to have anal sex with a man to produce a baby, and even then the male hormones often killed off the egg in the first few hours after production. Overall… timing was key, but even then nothing was certain.

Oliver knew he had to use the skills he had mastered that Yao Fei, Slade and Shado had taught him, he had to save this city for his father, but...

Oliver looked down to his currently flat stomach. He couldn't help thinking that it was meant to be. He got pregnant just before he left China, a one-in-a-million chance, the timing was simply amazing. How could he possibly get rid of something like that? Something the two of them had created together.

Oliver rubbed his belly tenderly with his thumb. Did he want to keep it because it was all he left of Slade?

"Oliver?"

"Hm?" The blonde turned around, spotting his friend.

"You okay?" Tommy asked, sitting down next to the blonde.

"Yeah, just thinking."

"And not drinking." Tommy added.

Oliver smirked, "I guess the island made me rethink a few things," he said. "Hey, Tommy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever think about starting a family?" He asked, "Say if you got a girl pregnant or you got pregnant, what would you do?"

Tommy gave his friend a weird look.

"Just humor me."

Tommy sighed, looking around and clicking his tongue in thought. "Well, I don't have any plans to have sex with a guy, but if I got a girl pregnant... I don't know." He groaned, throwing his arms up in the air.

"I know you're dating Laurel." Oliver told the dark haired man.

"How did you-"

"Took a guess," he cut in, "Now, if you got her pregnant, would you look after the baby?"

"You haven't got anyone pregnant have you?" Tommy knitted his brows at his friend.

"No."

Tommy sighed again, "I guess one day I would like to have kids. Not anytime soon, but yeah, kids sound cool."

"Do you think that I would make a good father?" Oliver asked. It was then that he realized his hand was still on his belly, he removed it. The urge to put his hand back was there, not that it would protect the baby in the slightest.

Tommy shrugged, "You're cutting down on drinking before you even have one," he smirked, "and you're thinking about it, so yeah I think so."

Oliver smiled, "Thanks."

"Can we talk about something a little less awkward now?" Tommy asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Sure," Oliver said, "So, when did you start dating Laurel?"

Tommy chuckled nervously, "So, babies… Um?"

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Lian Yu-

"How's it going?" Slade asked as he stepped into the plane, briskly rubbing a hand over his hair to get as much of the water out as possible. The rain was coming down heavy; stepping out there for more than ten seconds could completely drench a man, as Slade was proof of it. It was however the best time to collect clean water, so he'd gone out and opened up the water tanks which were otherwise left closed to keep the wildlife out.

"It would be going better, if you hadn't punched it." Oliver mumbled, fiddling with a pair of wires he had been sure Slade had disconnected, but once again he was disappointed to find that was not it either.

Slade paused from unbuttoning his shirt, having known that the padding would be water logged when he wore it outside. Turning, he saw the younger man on his knees in front of the radio in the black vest he had lent him, seeing as the kid only had one change of clothes."Kid, it wasn't much use before, it won't be much use now."

"I know we can't call out, but we can still listen in." The blonde said, trying to justify his continued work on the radio.

"Then you can man it too," Slade said, removing his shirt, "Give you something useful to do around here."

Oliver stopped what he was doing and gave the wall a deadpan look. Why did Slade always have to think of him as being useless? "Hey, I help."

"Yeah, real helpful," the Aussie said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He opened the button on his cargo pants, "Didn't see you out there, did I?"

Oliver could just about see out one of the dirt and ivy covered windows; the sound of the rain was loud, seeing as the plane was split in two… it didn't sound like nice weather to be out in. Oliver kept his mouth shut just in case the older man decided the idea to throw him outside was a good one.

Slade unzipped his cargo pants, pulling down the damp, clingy material, "I would have taken you with me, but you would've slowed me down and moaned like a bitch the whole way." Slade said, moving to put his clothes by the fire.

"Could you blame me?" Oliver turned and the next sentence caught in his throat.

Slade was standing about a foot away, a hand full of clothes in his hands and wearing nothing but a cocked brow and a pair of black boxer shorts. The flame illuminated his bronze skin in the low early morning light just leaching through the windows. His body was wide and looked positively unmovable, think intimidating muscles filling every inch of his body perfectly. The dips between muscles were defined, shaping his body perfectly and making him look even more powerful that Oliver had first thought.

"My face is up here," the course voice said, a hint of a sarcastic smirk on his face.

A chill ran up Oliver's spine as he quickly span back around to the radio with burning cheeks. "Do you have to walk around like that?"

Slade smirked to himself, laying his clothes along the metal frame that held up pots for cooking, "Never took you as the shy type."

"I'm not," the blonde mumbled.

"Oh?" Slade glanced up at that, "Little sexual deviant, are we?"

Oliver snorted softly at that, "Some would say so, yes."

Oliver heard Slade chuckle, but he didn't know that the man had moved until he felt the warm breath on his ear, "Then how is it that I'm making you all shy and quite like a virgin."

Oliver froze.

Slade tilted his head down, lips barely an inch away from Oliver's creamy skin.

When the Australian's hot breath blew down Oliver's neck, he shivered and moved his shoulders down with a soft gasp, exposing more of his neck. It was only when the tip of Slade's nose poked his neck did Oliver stop himself. He turned to the side and dropped down onto his hands, quickly shuffling away before standing and turning back to Slade.

The older man smirked, "Too much for you, hum?"

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oliver lay on his side in bed. It was weird to be sleeping on something soft again, something his body sank into, but he'd freaked his mother and her new husband out last night, so he was making an effort to get used to it again. The one thing that gave him comfort was placing his hand on his stomach. One day soon his belly would swell with the life inside, that of his son or daughter.

In that moment Oliver knew he was going to keep it, no matter what it took or what he had to give up; whether it be coffee, alcohol or following the list. He would have this baby. He knew that one day he would right this city for his father, his family and his child.


	2. A Matter of Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers for the episode "Keep Your Enemies Closer", please watch this episode first.

Building his base under one of his father's old factories had taken a week longer then it should have, but he had to pace himself with all the weight lifting. Dr. Clark had given Oliver a baffled look when he asked if exercising and being at a building site would harm the baby. The soon-to-be father was quick to explain that his family was fixing up the house and it may have been odd if he avoided the area like the plague until he told them about the baby. Overall, the doctor was happy when Oliver told him he was going to keep the baby.

He was ten weeks in to the pregnancy and the week before he had started to developed a bump, which was thankfully still simple enough to hide. The appearance of the bump however made everything seem more real. He spent his time online narrowing down baby names and reading up on what furniture and toys to get the baby.

"I know I'm still months away and I don't know the gender, but I saw this green and white baby blanket and it just seemed right." Oliver grinned.

"I'm really happy for you, Oliver." Dr. Clark smiled, "You sound like you're really looking forward to this."

"I am," he younger man nodded.

Dr. Clark frowned and paused before asking, "I do need to ask you if the father had any medical issues that we need to look out for."

Oliver nodded in understanding, he'd been thinking a lot about Slade lately, "He was in the military and built like a tank."

"That's good to hear." The doctor nodded. "The military doesn't usually accept people with medical conditions and on-going illnesses, depending on the severity." He turned to fill out the forms on the parent's health.

Oliver kept his mouth shut, he knew Slade was completely healthy from living with the guy all those years, but he couldn't exactly tell the doctor that. Instead he just let his mind wander to a time back when it was just Slade and he.

* * *

The sound of clashing bamboo and the heavy pounding of rain clanging on the exposed metal of the plane's inner wall fired up Oliver's adrenalin as he and Slade fought. The blonde was still very aware of the Australian's lack of clothing which is why when the two paused their movement after locking their bamboo sticks together, Oliver glanced to the muscles between Slade's strong shoulders. They were nowhere near as impressive as his chest, but he couldn't help the image in his mind of being on his back and clutching down around Slade's shoulders so that Slade would move further down his body, a sly grin on his lips.

Seeing the kid's distracted state, Slade removed one of his bamboo sticks from where it lay trapped and swung it at the blonde's knee, hard. Lucky for Oliver, he managed to move his leg in time so that Slade hit his thigh instead.

Oliver pushed the man away, dropping one of his sticks to grab his injury, hissing at the tenderness, "The hell did you do that for?" Oliver growled.

"You weren't pay attention." Slade snapped, advancing upon Oliver, "You need to always pay attention, you can't afford not to."

Oliver forced himself to stand up straight, even if his leg was killing him, using his height to his advantage as Slade got right in front of him. He smirked as the dark-haired man was forced to look up at him.

"You can't fight, you can't hunt. I can't even trust you to gut an animal or cook because I know you would fuck that up too." He smirked, "And, worst of all, you can't admit what you want. You aren't gay, I get it, I'm not." His smile grew into a devilish grin, "Even if you are very fuckable."

Oliver backed away, he couldn't take it. He knew that if Slade kept on he would get hard and the older man would have won.

Slade smirked, proud of himself even if he felt a little disappointed, "Coward in every sense," he said.

Oliver waited for Slade to put his weapons down and start to walk away before he ran at him. He didn't know what he was thinking really, he just couldn't let the bastard win again. Luckily his brain caught on with the rest of him as he got closer to Slade, allowing him to grab hold of his shoulders as the older man started to turn back to him and tripping his feet from under him, falling down on top of the man as he went down. Oliver quickly lifted himself up, sitting on Slade's belly and pinning his wrists next to his head.

Slade may have at some point looked shocked, but as Oliver looked to his face all he saw was a bored expression and a cocked brow. He was not fighting, not pushing Oliver off and punching him, nor turning the tables and putting Oliver on his ass. He just sat there like he was waiting for an explanation. He'd won again.

"You, you..." Oliver said through clenched teeth, "You dick."

Slade snorted, "That's all you could come up with?"

"It's what you are!" Oliver practically yelled in Slade's face.

"And you're still a damn coward!" Slade roared back, pushing his body up sharply.

Oliver slid down so that his butt was in Slade's lap, his thighs brushing the back of Slade's arms as the older man leaned further forward. His grip on Slade's wrists tightened as the man got closer, a warning that he was uncomfortable, not that Slade seemed to care.

"I'm keeping you alive," Slade growled, his face mere inches away from Oliver's, "I've kept you safe and fed, I'm training you so that you can protect yourself. So for once can you stop being such an ungrateful arsehole?"

Oliver just looked at Slade for a second, what he said had taken him completely off guard. He released his grip on Slade's wrists and looked away sheepishly. "Why?" He then added, "Why are you training me and letting me stay here?"

"You know where I am, the only way to make sure Fryers wouldn't find out is to kill you." Slade said honestly.

Oliver looked up at that, giving Slade a worried look.

"That and the fact that you went back for a man, risking your own freedom and life, just because he saved you." He looked Oliver dead in the eyes, "And, I can tell that you would willingly do it again even when he betrayed you. Now, you've met the real Wintergreen... I thought I knew him, but turns out I was wrong." He frowned, "But having someone you can truly trust with your life, even if they are untrained, is not something to be over looked."

Oliver blinked, looking into Slade's eyes, turned black in the dim light, "You trust me?" he couldn't help but ask.

"I do," Slade said, looking back into those bright emerald eyes, sparkling with thin waves of blue and speckles of gold around the outer ring of the iris, "Do you trust me?" he asked.

Oliver nodded, "I trust you."

The two said nothing for a few seconds. With the position they were in, there were only two opinions for what would to happen next; they could move apart or get closer. Slade went to move and Oliver placed his hands on the man's shoulders. Slade looked at him.

"Your right," Oliver gulped, his cheeks starting to burn, "I want to."

Slade nodded, moving his lips to Oliver neck and giving him a kiss right under his chin.

Oliver shivered as he felt the man's stubble run along his skin, leaning his head back to expose more of his neck.

Slade rested one hand on the back of Oliver's neck, kissing along his neck and grinned when Oliver gasped as he nipped the skin. Just before the blonde's collarbone Slade bit down, sucking a sizeable dark mark to the surface.

Oliver grabbed the back of Slade's head, running his hand through the dark wiry hair. He groaned as Slade used his arm to pull Oliver's hips closer to his, his behind rubbing against the growing hardness underneath him. Breaking from the kiss, Oliver moved back so he could swing one leg over so he could unzip and remove his jeans and boxers. As soon as they were unzipped however, Slade slipped a hand inside, grasping the hardened flesh and nipped Oliver's ear.

Oliver moaned, enjoying the calloused fingers working him, but managed to remove his jeans and boxers before he lost it and gave up entirely. Oliver mounted Slade again; the Aussie pulled their crotched together by way of Oliver's hips before the blonde could groan about the loss of the skilful hand that had held him.

"Fuck." Oliver moaned, grinding into Slade.

Slade's body jerked, his cock rocking hard against Oliver's, "Gets better," he smiled. He grasped the bottom on Oliver's vest and pulled it over his head before kissing down Oliver's chest, his smile growing as Oliver gasped and arched his back as Slade rolled his tongue over a nipple.

"Slade," Oliver moaned.

And that was it. Slade moved Oliver back just enough to remove his cock from his boxers. Taking Oliver's hand, Slade wrapped the blonde's hand around their cocks, before clasping his over Oliver's, their fingers entwined.

The two men worked together, working themselves closer and closer to the end. Slade's mouth continued to work on Oliver's neck, his arm around the blonde's waist, pulling him closer to his chest. While Oliver wrapped his free arm around Slade's neck with forehead on the other side, breathing deeply as he got closer to the finish line.

The pace built, becoming less of a rhythm and more of frantic push until they reached the end. First Oliver, who tightened his grip on Slade as he buried his face in Slade's neck, then Slade, who ran his hand through Oliver's hair and held him close with his free arm. Their hands were still linked even after as their bodies cooled down as the gradually cooling thick liquid they created together rolled down their chests and hands.

The two were covered in sweat and sperm, but they just sat there, catching their breath. They knew that after they would have to separate, but for now… the two just stayed in each other's arms. Feeling warm and comfortable, if only in a post-orgasm state of bliss.

* * *

"Oliver?"

The blonde blinked, pulling himself out of his memories, "Uh, sorry, what?"

"I'm going to need to ask you more questions about the father," he smiled weakly, "Is that okay?"

"Um, yeah. That's fine." Oliver nodded.

"Okay," the doctor looked over the sheet, "Let's start with his age?"

"Forty."

The doctor wrote it down, "What about his race?"

"Australian." Oliver answered, adding, "But he's part Māori, native New Zealander. So he had tanned skin." Oliver explained, starting to feel a bit uncomfortable seeing as how he knew so much, but he had to be honest for the baby's sake.

The doctor, to his credit, just blinked and carried on.

* * *

"Laurel?" A gentle voice asked.

Laurel paused from where she had been typing up the remaining documents on a recent case, "Emily?" her head shot up.

There stood Emily Nocenti. Her father had been murdered on the order of Martin Somers, for horrors that he had seen and like a hero, he tried to report and paid for it with his life. His only child Emily had wanted to go on the stand for what her father had told her before his demise, but she knew that if she did she would more than likely be killed. So instead she said nothing and went into hiding.

"I know what I'm risking, but I have to do it, Laurel," she said, her eyes full of determination. "I need to."

Laurel stood from her desk, "Then I'll be right there with you."

Emily smiled, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, "Thank you."

* * *

"Martin Somers?" Oliver hand went to his belly. Martin Somers was on the list. He didn't know what the list meant to his father, but every name on it always filled Oliver with a feeling of dread. "She's going after Martin Somers? Tommy, she'll be in danger."

Tommy ran a hand through his hair, "I know, but what am I supposed to say?"

The two friends sat together in a coffee shop, although Oliver was drinking tea, waving it off as something he had enjoyed while in China.

"We argued and now she doesn't want to see me, thinks I'm over protective." He shook his head, "Even her father is worried."

"She's always been stubborn," the blonde smiled, sipping his tea.

"Yeah." Tommy smiled fondly, thinking of her stubborn nature.

"How about I go and visit her tonight?" Oliver suggested, "I need to talk to her anyway about Sara." He said, looking down sadly.

"Oh," Tommy looked down into his coffee, his smile weak, but still there, "Yeah, I think you two should talk."

Oliver looked up at that.

"I know, I said that you two should stay apart, but if there is a chance that you two could get along..." waved his hand in the air, trying to think of the right words to say.

"Yeah, I get it." Oliver nodded.

* * *

Laurel sighed when she saw Oliver at her door, but left it open as she walked back into her apartment, "Did Tommy send you?"

"Only partly," Oliver said, shutting the door behind him. "We haven't really talked since I've been back."

Laurel turned back to Oliver, looking deep into his eyes. The slight twitch of her eyes signalling she wasn't happy that he was visiting. "I'm not going to forgive you for all that you did anytime soon, you know that, right?"

"I wouldn't." Oliver smiled.

Taking notice of the plastic bag in the blonde's hand, she pointed at it, "And that is?"

Oliver's smile grew, and pulled out the ice-cream carton from within, "A peace offering," he said. Laurel had always loved salted caramel ice cream, ever since Oliver's father had given her one at a barbecue on the Queen's patio when Laurel, Tommy and Oliver had been eight.

Laurel saw the label and a small smile pulled at her lips.

They chatted and Oliver told her about what happen to the Queen's gambit, how Sara had drowned, even when he knew that hadn't been the case. What could he say? That she had lived through the ship sinking, but was now dead? Yeah, that definitely wouldn't make her feel better. Besides, he would have a lot of explaining to do when the world found out he was pregnant, which was not going to go down well, adding Sara to the mix would just make it worse.

Oliver couldn't help thinking about Slade finding out. What would he do? Oliver never expected to see the man again, he had his ASIS life and Oliver had his quest to follow the list, even if that wasn't yet the case, well not as much as he would have wanted anyway.

Oliver was pulled out of his musings as he heard a sound, like the clang of someone on the fire escape and he was ready to get the two of them out of there. He grabbed hold of Laurel's wrist and told her they had to leave. Before she could ask why however, there was a shattering of glass and a female figure wearing all black with long white hair jumping through the window, a pair of Karambit knives in hand. China White, an assassin sent by the Chinese Triad.

Oliver pulled Laurel to the kitchen, knowing that China White would follow.

She ran at Oliver, but she underestimated him. He swung to the side and kicked her hard in the chin. She fell to the floor and Oliver reached for two steak knives from the wooden block next to the electric kettle. "Get out of here, now!" He yelled to Laurel and she listened, a terrified look on her face. Turning back just in time to see China White coming straight at him, he turned and grabbed the chopping board to use as a shield from her attack, leaving the knives on the side in the process.

Taking her once again by surprise, Oliver pushed her up against the wall, slamming her against it.

Then he turned, grabbing the knives again and ran, but the fight was nowhere near over. But, he couldn't afford anyone thinking he was the guy in the hood in several months time when he was ready to start truly working on the list. With China White dazed, Oliver ran towards the front door, growling "Get out" in a very low tone before turning off the living room and kitchen lights which thankfully sat next to each other and slammed the door shut to bout all the light. Hearing the white-haired woman's knives clink against each other, Oliver flipped on his green hood that he had worn under his jacket for more warmth for the baby.

The baby. He wouldn't let her be harmed. These knives were no match for the woman's, but he wasn't planning on keeping them for long.

The two of them hid, both used to the dark, but when Oliver saw the shine of metal he went for it. He threw his blade, both disarming and cutting her hand in the process. She yelled out in pain, a Chinese curse only Shado and Slade had taught Oliver when Yao Fei was off hunting slipped from her lips. Oliver went to knock her out and that was when he left himself open. He kicked the knife from her other hand and she sharply kicked him back in the stomach, which he usually could take with no problem, but the baby couldn't.

Falling on to his butt, Oliver wrapped an arm around his belly, where the woman had kicked him.

China White came for him with a knife from her belt, which in his shock Oliver had not noticed until it was nearly too late, but at the last second he sent a fast kick to her shins and she dropped her knife in the fall. Oliver grabbed her before she could grab it and held her in a neck hold, dropping his own remaining knife as he did so.

He wanted to do it. He want to snap her neck for what she had done, but the baby was right there, she was right there, he couldn't do it with her right there.

She? When did Oliver start thinking of her as a she?

That was when he knew more than ever that he couldn't kill anymore. He had a child for God's sake, he couldn't go killing people on the list. He had a child, possibly a little girl.

Oliver was already cutting off the blood to her head meaning she was about to pass out, her hands on his arms weak until they dropped down, then Oliver let her go, body thumping down onto the wooden floor in unconsciousness. He rolled his sleeves over his hands and went to remove his finger prints from the knives.

* * *

Sergeant Lance ran up the stairs, not stopping until he made it to Laurel's floor. He paused to take a breath, peeking through the window of the door to see Oliver sat on the floor, leaning his body against the cream wall, an arm wrapped around his belly. His eyes were on ceiling, voice low, but Lance couldn't see who he would be talking to.

As Lance opened the door, Oliver nearly jumped in to a fighting position when he saw the gun, a natural reaction. "She's in the apartment. Unconscious." Oliver said.

That made Lance stop his movement into said apartment, he turned, giving the blonde a questionable look.

"Not my doing." Oliver said, holding his hands up in surrender, "Some guy in a green hoodie came in and told me to run. I came back and she was out cold."

Lance scowled, "Your luck never runs out, does it?" He turned back to the apartment and made his way in.

A minute or two passed, but to Oliver it felt like the longest time in his life. His baby had been hurt, she needed to go to the hospital and Oliver couldn't think of an excuse to get out of here. "The hell with it," he said, slowly standing up. He had to get her help; he didn't have time for this.

Just then the door opened again and there was Laurel.

"Oliver," she gasped, running over and placing a hand on his shoulder, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Oliver said, waving the matter away with his hand, "Look Laurel, I've got to go. I-"

"Oliver, you can't go. You were part of an attack." Laurel told the blonde, looking at him in slightly stunned confusion, as if he was just suggested that they go to a pottery class.

"Where do you have to go so urgently?" Lance called, coming out of the apartment.

Oliver didn't say the "Oh crap" That he felt like saying, but from the smirk on the Sergeant's face it was pretty clear that his eyes did.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have time for this," Oliver shook his head, panic building and lies competently escaping him. "I have to go."

"For what?" Laurel demeaned.

"She's waited too long, I-" Oliver stopped. He had to get out of here.

"She who?" Laurel asked, a slight deadpan look on her face like she knew the reason was childish and so like Oliver.

"What are you worried about, Queen?" Lance's smirk twitched, knowing he had the blonde trapped. He walked right up to Oliver, standing but a foot away.

He was trapped, he knew was trapped, but he didn't care anymore, he had to get to a hospital, now. "I'm twelve weeks pregnant and that bitch kicked me in the stomach!" He growled, not realizing how much anger had built up in him.

Laurel and Lance looked at him with shocked expressions; eyes wide, mouths opening, moving as if trying to form the beginning of words.

Oliver's fists tightened and clicked, trying to sooth his anger, he snarled, "Now, either let me go or drive me, but I need to get to the hospital. Right. Now."

* * *

Oliver ended his call to Doctor Clark and sighed.

"I'm sorry." Laurel said, looking at the blonde through the rear-view mirror.

"It's fine," Oliver said, resting his forehead on the cool glass of the car window. "I'm sorry for snapping at you and your father."

The two sat in the car in silence for the rest of the drive to the hospital, the silence was comfortable, but Laurel could see Oliver was worried from the hand that he kept unconsciously on his belly. They didn't talk again until they make it to the drop off area in front of the hospital.

As Oliver got out, Laurel wound down her window, "I'll find somewhere to park."

"Okay." Oliver nodded, giving her a small smile.

"I-I'm so sorry, Oliver. I shouldn't have left you there by yourself." Laurel said, eyes sincere.

He looked her in the eyes, "I told you to get out," he frowned and said, "It's all my fault," before turning and leaving.

"Oliver, Oliver wait!" Laurel called out, but to avail.

Oliver kept moving, he didn't want her to see the tears rolling down his cheeks.

What the hell was wrong with him? What kind of man couldn't look after his own child?

* * *

Oliver sat up against the cold metal hospital bed headboard; his legs were under the blanket to keep warm seeing as he had removed his jacket and hoodie for his examination. He was waiting for Doctor Clark to locate an ultrasound machine when a nurse appeared at the door.

"Mr. Queen, there is a Laurel and Quentin Lance here to see you. Shall I let them in?" she asked.

Oliver nodded.

"Also, your family have been notified that you are here," she said, a poorly practiced fake smile crawling onto her face to hide her weariness after a long day's work.

Oliver nodded once again, hiding his hoodie inside his jacket.

Seconds after she left the door opened once more. Laurel gave Oliver a gentle smile, while Lance looked more bewildered about the night's events.

"How are you feeling?" Laurel asked, walking over to stand next to the blonde.

"I'm fine." Oliver assured her, "My doctor's just setting up an ultrasound to check everything."

"Who's your doctor?" Lance asked.

"Dr. Clark, Head of Pediatrics."

Lance raised his brows at that before nodding, "Not bad. I guess it makes sense seeing as this is rare."

Oliver frowned, wrapping his arms around his belly, "Don't remind me." He tucked one hand in the other so they wouldn't notice that he was pinching himself. He had to stop himself from bursting into tears again.

Lance realized his words and for the first time, in all the years Oliver had known him, the older man actually looked worried for him, "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know. It's fine, really," he snorted, "I'm just not looking forward to the ultrasound."

"How come?" Laurel asked.

"I was meant to have my first one a little while ago, but I didn't have time." He smiled weakly, "I booked to have it tomorrow… it's suppose to be a good occasion. This isn't."

"It's not your fault." Laurel told him.

Just then Doctor Clark opened the door, walking backwards and rolling a table with a screen and what must have been the machine for the ultrasound into the room. "How are we feeling?"

"A little bipolar." Oliver said honestly, feeling exhausted from the fluctuating emotions.

"Since tonight?" the doctor asked.

Oliver thought for a second, he'd been more sensitive to emotions as of late, he had wrote it off as being back home and not training and living as a warrior, "I guess I've been a little emotional these last few days, but a lot worse tonight."

The doctor nodded, "Hormones." he answered, "The stress may have worsened it for a period, give it time and it should calm." He smiled.

"Good to know." Oliver said as he nodded.

Lance moved to the door, holding it open with his hand, "I'll need to question you about the attack after."

Oliver nodded, giving the Sergeant a polite smile until he left.

"Do you want me to stay?" Laurel asked.

Oliver smiled, "If you can."

"Of course." She sat in the soft visitor chair that stood pointing at the bed.

"I'll need you to lift up your shirt." Doctor Clark said, a tube of jelly in his hand.

Oliver smirked, "Things are about to get graphic." He said to Laurel.

She smirked back, "I've seen you naked." she pointed out.

"Not like this," he said, shaking his head. He lifted his shirt to just before his nipples, his chest scars and his Chinese writing tattoo on display.

Laurel's eyes boggled, "Oh, Ollie," she shook her head, not believing what she was seeing, "How did you survive?"

Oliver looked down at them and shrugged, "They're only flesh wounds Laurel. Besides, you build up a tolerance after awhile." Oliver looked back to the doctor, who looked a little uncomfortable, "Sorry. We can continue."

As the doctor poured the jelly onto Oliver's belly, the blonde knew she was giving him a 'The hell?' look, but he paid it no mind.

"Okay." The doctor said, running the device over Oliver's stomach, clicking his tongue lightly against the roof of his mouth as he searched, "Here we are."

Oliver's heart thumped fast in his ribcage.

Doctor Clark inspected the growing baby thoroughly, for about a minute, taking note of things with a hum that neither sounded good nor bad. He smiled, "Everything looks good."

"Good?" Oliver smiled.

"A parent's body will do everything to protect the baby, plus you said that the tip of the woman's boot hit your ribs, that's caught some of the pressure and the baby was far down enough not to suffer from it," he said. "I would have said that was likely the case before, but I didn't want to risk it until I knew for sure that the baby was okay."

"She's okay." Oliver told himself, grinning widely "She's okay."

"She?" the doctor asked.

Oliver smiled, "I know it's too early to tell, but I just kept referring to the baby as a she in my head. But, I'll love him or her either way."

"You're going to be a great father." Laurel said.

Oliver blinked, he looked back to Laurel, she looked honest, "Thank you," he smiled.

"I agree." The doctor nodded.

Oliver was about to turn and thank him when the door slid open a crack, none of them really noticed aside from Oliver, whose eyes went to it straight away.

"Sorry to disturb," Lance called from behind the door, "but Oliver your family is here and your sister is really not happy."

"On my way." Oliver said.

Laurel placed a hand of the blonde's shoulder, "I see you in a bit."

Oliver gave her a smile. It was good to have Laurel back to speaking to him again. When today was finally over, it was likely that she would go back to hating him, so for now he wanted to enjoy these moments with his old friend.

"Oliver?" The doctor asked, once Laurel had left with her father, "Are you sure you don't want to see?" he said, holding the ultrasound device in one hand and a few paper towels in the other.

Oliver nodded, "I'll wait."

Doctor Clark passed him the paper towels before moving to turn off the screen and the machine. "Have you found any names you like yet?" he asked.

"Still narrowing it down." Oliver sighed, wiping the jelly from his stomach.

The doctor smiled, wheeling the machine to the door, "I'll see you next Wednesday. I hope all goes well."

"Me too." Oliver said, slipping his feet into his shoes and grabbing his jacket and hoodie, tucking the hood under his jacket like he had before.

* * *

"Where. Is. Oliver?" Thea demanded to the Sergeant.

Oliver didn't want to see how badly that ended, so he said, "Right here speedy," as he walked up to them. 'Them' consisted of Lance, Laurel, Thea, Tommy, Moira and her husband Walter.

"Are you hurt?" his mother asked. "Sergeant Lance said you were attack? What happened, Oliver? Who attacked you? Why-"

Oliver placed his hands on his mother's shoulder's, "It's okay," he said calmly, hoping it would calm her. "I'm okay. And I'll explain all that later, but right now I need to tell you all something."

Laurel forced herself not to smile, looking away from Tommy when he looked at her curiously.

"Mom, you're," he stopped before adding, "No yelling to the world about this, okay?" he said, looking around to see a few visitors and nursing staff were looking over, wondering what the ruckus had been about. "Mom," he smiled, "You're going to be a grandmother."

Now, maybe it was because Oliver had not mentioned any interest in anyone since he had been back or it may have been largely to due to the fact that Thea had seen him being sick one morning and therefore clocked it first, gasping "Oliver!" that Moira said what she said.

"You're pregnant?!" She asked Thea in a sharp whisper.

"What?" Thea gave her mother an odd look, still a little stunned from what Oliver had just said.

Oliver burst out laughing, the moment was just so perfect; the looks on their faces were priceless. He laughed so hard he suddenly let himself drop down in to the chair behind him, very nearly falling to the floor if he hadn't sat down. "Oh God," he gasped between chuckles.

"You got a girl pregnant?" Moira asked.

"No." Oliver said, still chuckling and in that moment of humour he couldn't help adding, "However, someone guy got me pregnant." He said in a hushed tone.

"Wh-wha?" Moira stuttered.

"Wait." Tommy said, holding up his hand, "So that night when you were talking about what it would be like to be a father, you were..." he left the sentence hanging.

"Yep." Oliver nodded.

"But you said that on your second day back" And finally, Tommy was the one to point out something neither Sergeant Lance or Laurel had noticed when he said he was twelve weeks pregnant, having only been back for nine. "Did you get pregnant in China?"

Oliver nodded, "The father was a friend of mine and that's all I have to say." He said, frowning as he continued, "During the attack I got kicked in the belly," he quickly added, "the baby is fine, but I just wanted to be sure."

Moira just shook her head, not knowing what to say.

"You, you had sex with a guy?" Tommy asked, the words not making any sense in his mind.

"That's how babies are made." Oliver simply said.

"Why?" he asked.

"I second that." Thea said.

Laurel hummed in agreement.

"Five years without sex and he was hot." Lack of sex was kind of how it started, they were kind of friend with benefits for months before they kissed and things got more personal.

Walter put his hand on his wife's shoulder, he was about to comfort her when she placed a hand on his.

"I need a moment alone," she said, walking away.

Oliver watched his mother leave the room, disappointment in his eyes.

"She just needs a bit of time to think." Walter told his stepson.

Oliver sighed, turning to Sergeant Lance who was leaning against the wall, having been watching the whole event, "You have some questions about tonight?"

Lance nodded as he sat down next to him.

Tommy, Laurel and Thea just stood there looking at each other, not too sure what they were supposed to do. That was until Walter took lead and sat down in one of the chairs near Oliver, waving them over to join him. They did.

Unknown to the group, a man stood from the chair he had been sitting in since the Sergeant arrived, folding up the newspaper that had been previously used to hide his features. His skin was tanned, his hair black and his eyes were a very dark brown, the brown only just clear in the bright hospital lights.

He saw the blonde he had once trained and kept safe, he didn't know why he was here, but he looked fine. He smiled at the blonde, the corner of his lips only rising on one side due to the reconstructive surgery he had undergone after suffering burns on his face during an explosion. The burns had been painful, but thankfully they were light enough to be fixed, a scar ran along his right cheek from the surgery and his right eye was closed but in normal light it was only slightly squinted. It was a miracle he could still see from it, but it was now very sensitive to light.

He turned to the door the blonde's mother had left from and followed, once out the door he spotted a signed that pointed down the hall to the canteen. It was likely sparse this late at night, if he wanted somewhere to think, that's where he would go.

Walking into the canteen, his sighed at the lower lights and opened his eye again, suffering only a slight burning sensation, but he gave a few hard blinks and the pain was gone. The room had a few doctors and nurses in it, eating and chatting and there was a woman in her late twenties standing at the till, looking bored. He spotted the blonde woman sitting at a table by herself, head in her hands.

He walked up to the blonde woman, standing a foot away from her table, "You alright there, love?" he asked, with a concerned look on his face.

She looked up, a little taken aback by his sudden presence.

"Not bad news, I hope." He smiled gently, "I'm Slade. May I ask your name, ma'am?"

She blinked, tilting her head in question "Moira ."

Slade nodded, "Interesting name."

"I could say the same for yourself," she smirked, "Your accent is interesting too."

"Australian," he said, "I was just here to visiting a friend. Yourself?"

She just looked at him for a second, her time working with the people involved in the undertaking making her naturally suspicious," My son." She frowned, "He got himself hurt."

"Sounds like it happens often." Slade commented.

Moira chuckled, "You don't know him? You haven't been watching the news lately, have you?"

She held an arm out, offering the chair in front of her.

"Thank you." Slade smiled politely and sat down, "And no, I only just came here and before that I was in the Navy. Spent more time in the Middle East than I did back home."

She hummed in interest, "And home is?"

"Albany, Australia. It's in Western Australia," he said. "So, is your son a celebrity or something?" Slade asked.

"Or something."

Slade smirked, the lack of his lip movement caught the woman's eyes.

"Reconstructive surgery," he said, taping the corner on his lips, "Should have seen me before."

"Oh, sorry." she said, looking away.

"It's fine. It happens," he said, "Didn't get hurt badly, did he? Your son?"

She shook her head, "No, but it could have been worse."

Slade nodded, holding down his smirk when he saw his opportunity. "You should hire him a bodyguard or something," he joked.

Moira paused before nodding, "I could. That's a good idea."

After the first week of Oliver's return, Malcolm told her that he had planned on hiring a few men to catch Oliver and ask him what he knew, but could never get him alone and Oliver didn't seem to think anything was out of the ordinary with the Queen's Gambit, so he gave up. A bodyguard was a good idea, someone to protect Oliver and the baby. The man needed to have experience; he needed to be able to protect Oliver from potentially armed men if Malcolm changed his mind.

Moira smiled, an idea coming to mind, "How long were you in the Navy?"

"Since I was eighteen," he said, "I worked in disarming bombs. Steady mind, steady hand and all that." Well, disarming and making, but that last bit would unlikely go down well.

"Are you working?" she asked.

"Not at the moment."

"Would you look after my son?" she asked.

He sat back in his chair, blinking in fake surprise, "Um, yeah I guess so," he smiled, it's not like he's never had that job before.

They traded numbers and went over a few requirements such as Slade wearing a suit due to being in the public eye, and a car would also be provided to him for the same reason. The two shook hands and it was a deal.

Moira stood, "I will see you tomorrow at eleven then," she held out her hand.

"But of course." Slade shook it. Watching the blonde woman leave, a grin pulled at his lips.

Just as planned.


	3. A Matter of Lust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can guess what you may be about to read from the title. I would have wrote more but I have less time on my hands at the moment, so I figured that you all might in enjoy this short and smutty chapter and I can write a longer and more plot filled one later.
> 
> Yes Slade WILL be in the next part.

\- Lian Yu -

"What promises do you hold?" Slade questioned the circuit board held between his index finger and thumb. He threw himself down on to the metal and somewhat padded detached plane seat, holding the chip up into a path of light from one of the windows to see it better.

"We can trade it for a way out of here?" Oliver suggested.

"And just hand it over?" Black eyes gazed at the blonde, who sat warming himself by the fire. "Even if they just let us go, what are the chances that they'll use it for something dangerous, I wonder."

"We can give them the location of the circuit board when they give us what we want," Oliver said, "And I never said we had to tell them the truth."

Slade smiled, a wave of pride went over him, "Well, well, well. Look who's improving, now if we could just work on your fighting ability," he said, leaning to the side to place the chip on one of the upside-down food containers.

Oliver looked up, giving the man a small smile before looking away shyly. The older man had been kind to him as of late… That could have been due to the odd sexual favours they threw each other's way from time to time.

Slade liked the younger man's reaction, it was kind of cute. He was a surprised however when the blonde suddenly stood and walk towards him, eyes to the floor. He stopped when he reached Slade, dropping down to his knees. "Can I help you with something?" Slade asked with a smirk.

Oliver crossed his arms over Slade's knees, chin resting on the area when his arms crossed. His bright eyes finally met Slade's. "Can you bear with me for a moment?" He asked, looking to the right behind Slade's chest, staring at the bottom of the protective padding behind him, avoiding his eyes in nervousness. "I need to figure out what I'm doing here."

"The sooner you know, the soon I know." Slade said, but pushed the subject no further.

Oliver nodded.

The two sat saying and doing nothing for about half a minute before Oliver moved a hesitant hand to rest on Slade's thigh, curling his fingers down the inside of the man's thigh and ran his hand back up ever so slowly, stopping before he reached something more sensitive. He repeated the motion again, confidence building as he added more pressure.

Slade just watched the blonde. Now this was a surprise, a surprise that he liked and he was pretty sure he knew how it would continue and for that reason he did nothing. He left the other to find his way.

Oliver took a deep breath; both for the stress of preparing himself to do something so unfamiliar and for what he once saw as disgusting, but now the very idea of doing it for the man was making him hard. He sat back and moved his hands forward to unzip and pull out Slade's cock. He leant forward and kissed the head, feeling the man's body tense slightly beneath him.

He then ran his tongue over the head and Oliver had to admit that it didn't taste bad, musky maybe from the lack of a descent hot shower and the active life they were forced into, but that made sense. Oliver would be lying if he said that he wasn't even more turned on than before. He ventured on, running his fingertips along the side of Slade's cock as he took the head in his mouth.

Slade groaned as Oliver worked him further into his mouth, the dark-haired man couldn't help but move a hand to the other's head, running his fingers through Oliver's long dirty blonde hair.

Oliver pulled back when he felt pre-cum, it rolled down his tongue as he pulled back. It was thick and it tasted salty, but not to a point of becoming bitter. It was like that last bit of salt on his plate after a meal that he would dip his finger into and taste; the flavor was oddly satisfying. He shut his mouth and swallowed.

Never would Oliver believe in a million years that he could've done something like this, but he just did. He smiled devilishly, aware that Slade's eyes were on his, and ran his tongue along the underside of Slade's hardening member, then proceeding to use the tip of his tongue to trace the vein.

"Fuck." Slade gasped, followed by a moan, the sound more like a low growl in his deep gravelly voice.

Oliver bobbed his head, pulling back every so often to run his tongue along the underside before taking the man in further and further with each move forward, taking as much as his throat would allow.

Slade kept his hips painfully still to stop himself from choking the younger man, moaning hard as the kid built up a perfect rhythm. He gripped the blonde's hair tightly, his hips shuddering as he neared climax.

Oliver could tell from the older man's deep breathing that he was close, although that wasn't to say he was prepared to have cum shoot down his throat. It was a shock, but at least he didn't gag. He swallowed the rest, lapping a small amount left on Slade's member before putting the man's private parts away and zipping him back up.

"You really do surprise me sometimes." Slade said, cupping Oliver's cheek.

Oliver froze as Slade's lips descended upon his and for a second or two he really thought that the older man had kissed his lips. What Slade did however was kiss just under one corner of his lips, then he ran his tongue up, narrowly missing Oliver's lips. Oliver was still pretty stunned by the action however as Slade pulled back he saw the man licking his lips, he guessed that Slade must have been cleaning up a slight spillage of his making.

Slade rubbed his thumb against Oliver's bottom lip and the younger man just had to wonder. Should they kiss? Was that a little too close to a relationship? Did Slade even want to? Did Oliver? It was then that Oliver looked at Slade's full lips and he knew he wanted to, but he knew there was a line. They had a good thing going, if Oliver kissed the other man that could make things awkward; be it now or later.

"Your turn," Slade said.

Oliver looked up at that.

"And how about we try something different?" Slade grinned in a way that terrified Oliver when he first saw it, as did his chuckle. That could have been due to the fact after threatening to kill him before and taking a punch to the face, Slade just chuckled and grinned, mouth wide with white teeth as he swung his body back to standing straight like nothing had happened.

"Like what?" Oliver grinned back. He stood, assuming they would be moving elsewhere for the sake of space.

Slade slapped his thighs, "Hop aboard."

Oliver's eyes boggled, "Come again?" Heat burned in his cheeks. Did he want to...?

"That won't be happening anytime soon." Slade said, waving a hand over his crotch, "No need to worry about that." He placed his hands on Oliver's hips, his fingers drummed against the plump behind suggestively, "These however, I would worry about."

He raised a brow, which clearly said 'Are you in?'

"Oh, right. Okay, um," Oliver looked down at his hands and fought the urge to play with his sleeves in a nervous habit.

Slade took a hand in his, lacing their fingers together. "Trust me," he said.

Oliver looked at their hands for a moment. Slade had rather large fingers, which made Oliver gulp. His hand nearly engulfed Oliver's, his darker skin making Oliver's look snow white in comparison. His fingers and palm were calloused, making them feel hard and a little rough, and wasn't that just about the best way to describe Slade? Oliver looked up and met those black pools of abyss. He nodded.

"You'll want to remove these." Slade pointed out, sliding one of his fingers through the belt loop of Oliver's jeans.

Oliver took his hand back from Slade's to unbutton and zip his jeans before he pulled them down, his tented boxer were pretty obvious about his excitement. Stepping out of the dark material as he straddled the older man's lap with legs handing out between the armrest, Oliver sat down in the man's lap, seeing as how the metal chair was something that wouldn't be very comfortable to rest his legs and knees on.

Slade palmed Oliver through his dark blue boxers, causing the blonde to gasp, thrusting into his grasp. Slade grinned at the reaction; he licked his index finger and thumb before he slipped a hand inside, rolling his fingers along the hardened flesh.

Oliver moaned, trying to move his hips, but Slade held them down with a strong hand at his hip. Oliver groaned, head dropping to Slade's shoulder, "What is it with you messing with me, all the damn time?" He gasped as the Aussie's finger ran down the underside of his cock, "Move already."

"I like watching you beg," Slade said, kissing the back of Oliver's ear and running his teeth down his neck, his stubble scratching softly along Oliver's skin.

"That's creepy," Oliver said. He moaned loudly as Slade suddenly grabbed him tightly.

"Sit back," Slade ordered.

Oliver did, eyes still on Slade's chest.

"Look at me," Slade said, his voice more gentle.

Oliver's eye met his. The emerald eyes were carved with waves of blue and specs of gold dancing around the pupil as they met the jet black ones, the colour of Slade's brown eyes hidden in the low light.

Slade started to pump Oliver.

Oliver moaned, but as his eyes fell shut, both from pleasure and to look away from Slade's heated gaze, the man stopped his movements. The Aussie then massaged the head slowly and tenderly, and it was driving Oliver crazy. He opened his eyes, heat rushing to his face as he met those dark eyes and that cocky smile, "You're such a sadist," Oliver said before he moaned hard as Slade started up again. This time Oliver managed to keep his eyes open, which was difficult… fighting such a natural reaction when he was being so badly distracted.

Slade chuckled, a grin pulling at his lips. That should really not turn Oliver on so much.

"Well, then," Slade placed a hand on Oliver's behind, giving the cheek a squeeze, "How about I reward you for your diligence?" He questioned, stroking slowing before stopping

Oliver wondered how Slade would get to that. He'd much rather the man just did it then started talking about it. It not like Oliver hadn't done it to himself before; only when he was alone and he never told a soul because he knew how "gay" such an act was, even if it felt so damn good. Having another person do it, a male, older, larger and completely nothing like a woman, wasn't helping the matter. Then again, would he really want a woman to do that to him? And there was something comforting about having someone stronger around to protect him. To take care of him as they... well, as they did this.

Oliver looked to the side and nodded.

Slade wrapped an arm around Oliver and pulled him to his chest, Oliver's head at his shoulder. The younger man was a little surprised that Slade have gave up the looking-into-each-other's-eyes rule for Oliver's comfort, but quickly thinking about it Oliver concluded that now Slade could reach his target and that was his real reason.

Slade started to stroke Oliver's cock once more, the pace however was slower, nowhere near as fast enough as needed to get Oliver to reach the end. He kissed and nipped at Oliver's skin, Slade's ears always keen to hear Oliver gasp and moan. He moved his arm from Oliver's back to his butt, running a hand over the clothed skin. Oliver arched his back, leaning into the touch.

Slade kissed Oliver's ear, "Ready?"

The dark-haired man's warm breath and deep, husky voice caused a shiver to run up Oliver's spine. He nodded, cheek rubbing against Slade's jaw.

Slade placed his index and middle fingers into his mouth, lapping at them with his saliva tipped tongue before returning them to Oliver's behind. He slipped a hand inside the boxers, rubbing his wetted finger tip at the entrance.

Oliver whined at the teasing and arched his back further, lifting his ass up as much as possible, trying to tell Slade he was ready, but he didn't have to wait any longer. As Slade slipped a finger all the way inside, Oliver moaned loudly, "Fuck," he said as he grabbed Slade's shoulder with his hand. Slade gave a few quick jerks that had Oliver teetering on the edge before returning to his slow pace.

Slade thrust his finger in and out, getting Oliver used to the size before adding a second. He smiled as Oliver moaned and buried his head into the older man's neck. The one thing Slade didn't expect was when he was scissoring his finger, stretching Oliver's walls quite nicely, how Oliver started to kiss his neck. This was a little unexpected, but the real surprise came when Oliver bit down. He would have pulled the blonde closer, but both of his hands were in use pleasuring the young man still moaning as he went along biting and sucking Slade's neck. Instead, he tilted his head to the side, giving the man more room to work with.

As Slade was fucking Oliver hard with his fingers he thought about adding another, to drag the whole thing about further, but once he got to about three or four he might as well just go all the way with him. So instead, Slade pushed in deeper and moved his fingers at an angle towards where he was pretty sure his goal was at. Then he hit it; Oliver's prostate. In that exact moment that he hit it, Oliver happened to be biting a patch of Slade's neck he had been peppering with kisses, so of course the surge of pure pleasure caused him to bite down, very hard. So hard that Oliver could taste blood and Slade growled something that didn't sound very pleasant in a language Oliver didn't understand.

Oliver quickly let go and went to pull back when Slade started to thrust and jerk Oliver with a near unbearable pace. Oliver moaned and moaned, high and quick from the overload that was filling his body; literally as it was the case. He couldn't think straight and there wasn't any way he was moving away, so he clung onto Slade; one hand on the man's shoulder, the other on his hip.

Unsurprisingly, he came.

Slade slowly pulled his fingers out of him. Hearing Oliver groan, he kissed the blonde's neck. He wrapped his arms around Oliver, one of his hands was facing up and balled, holding onto the thick white liquid he was currently unable to remove, some of which was dripped down his arm.

"Fuck," Oliver gasped, trying to catch his breath. After a minute, he remembered the bite and glanced up. There was a bit of wet blood, some streaming down his neck and some smothered into his skin. The mark looked painful, to Oliver anyway, but the blonde was pretty sure that Slade had liked it, considering his reaction. There was a thin line between pain and pleasure; it could have been that Slade just had a higher threshold than him. Oliver still felt bad.

Oliver leaned up and licked away the stream of blood, the copper taste was bitter in his mouth.

Slade sighed, his body relaxing as Oliver lick along his neck. The younger man thankfully had the sense not to lick the bite mark. He would have to clean it later.

"Thanks," Slade said as Oliver pulled away.

Oliver smiled and rested his head on Slade's chest, listening to the man's strong heart beat thump quickly beneath his ear. He sat there, the heart beat a quiet lullaby to him.

Here they were yet again; there was something so relaxing about being in Slade's arms. They never mentioned it, Oliver didn't even think of it as cuddling even when he knew that's what it was. Talking about it would only just ruin it.

* * *

\- Starling City -

Oliver opened his eye, blinking for a second; trying to recall where he was. As he rolled onto his side, his arousal brushed against the mattress. "Ah," he gasped as a wave of pleasure swept through him as he remembered where he was. He dropped his head on to the pillow, "Great," he groaned, "just great."


	4. A Matter of Starting Anew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait.
> 
> Interesting news. I may be going to Greece for a year for work experience, along with my boyfriend. After college (this year), so it won't be for a while yet.

"Oliver?" Moira said, tapping her knuckles on the door frame to her son's room.

"I'm here." Oliver called from his bathroom en-suite. He stood on his tiptoes so that he could see his bump in the mirror above the sink, hand petting it.

"I have someone who I would like you to meet."

Oliver grabbed a green cotton shirt, slipping it on, "Oh?" he then pulled on a grey hoodie.

"I have got you a bodyguard." she paused, knowing Oliver would likely have something to say about the idea.

"What?" Oliver opened the door. "Why?"

"Oliver." she said, voice calm, "With all due respect the consciences of last night could have been much worse." she gave him a small smile, "And I very much wish to meet my grandchild."

Oliver frowned. She had a point. "Do they know?"

"No. We will have to tell him at some point but for now let's just let you two get to know each other." Moira said, adding, "You will like him, I can tell. He's downstairs at this moment chatting with Raisa in Russian."

Oliver nodded, giving his mother a reassuring smile. The guy did sound interesting but he did not feel comfortable with some stranger being around his baby, especially as Oliver was not less able to protect himself without risking the baby's well being.

"I know your worried." Moira said, smiling gently.

It was then that Oliver realised his arm was around his bump.

"When I was pregnant with you and then Thea, I was so scared the world was out to get you. During both pregnancies I would not let even your father touch my bump." She laughed lightly, a frown pulling at her lips at the mention of her late husband.

Oliver nodded. He sighed dramatically, "Alright, I'll meet him."

* * *

"Miss Queen." Raisa smiled in greeting to the mother and son, "We have made some tea, if you would like a cup?"

"We?" Oliver questioned.

"Mr Wilson brought tea leafs he got in China. He said they are often used after people have suffered injuries." she smiled, "I believe it would also be good for the baby."

Oliver's face was set in stone. He nodded to Raisa and followed her to the kitchen, all the while his heart was pounding. It had to be a coincidence that his bodyguard could speak Russian and had the same last name as the father of his child, the man he had been with for all those years. It had to be.

Rounding the corner he saw Slade Wilson. Stood in a black suit with a white dress shirt; all buttoned up, face clean cut, looking so unlike the Slade he knew, passing a cup of tea to Thea.

It was no coincidence.

* * *

\- Liànyù -

There were a mixture of emotions running through Oliver at this moment as he sat watching Slade and Shado spar.

Sorrow, for Yao Fei had been captured. A sliver of happiness, Yao Fei had not betrayed him, he was just trying to keep his daughter safe. Anger, Fyers had Yao Fei. Anger seemed to be the strongest emotion going, followed by a background of sadness. These feeling seemed to spark every time he looked over to Shado, she was so much like her father. After awhile however he started to feel anger at her and that just confused Oliver.

Slade grinned up at Shado, her long dark hair dropping down on to his forehead and cheek. "You'll have to teach me that one." he told her, still catching his breath.

"Only if you show me where the knife was." she said.

Oliver's nails dug into his seat, which was noting more than a log. Something about the way she sat on him, the way Slade panted with a grin across his lips and the way her body jerked on top of his as he pressed the metal into her back told Oliver all he needed to know. He knew the reason for his anger for her, he just could not believe it. It was not like him to get jealous when he and Slade were just sleeping together. What ground did he even have to stand on?

Oliver got up, he could not watch them anymore. He went over to where Yao Fei's bow sat and picked it up.

"Who taught you how to fight?" Slade asked, pushing himself off the floor to stand with Shado.

"My father wanted a son." she said. She spotted Oliver playing with the bow and went over to him.

"He got one." Slade remarked.

"Careful. The tension in that bow is 150 pounds. Snap it, you'll end up with carbon fibre shrapnel in your eyes." she told the blonde.

"She's right." Slade agreed, "You're not strong enough, kid." he turned to Shado, "Go again?"

Oliver was stuck between growling out the word 'bastard' or walking right out the plane. In the end he just stood there. "You know, it's pretty exciting that both of you are such bad-asses but don't you think we should maybe be making a plan to stop Fyers and... I dunno save your dad?"

"Does he always whine this much?" Shado asked, looking over to the Australian.

"This is one of his good days."

Oliver just rolled his eyes, taking a seat on a cargo crate. Slade was being such a total dick.

Shado raised a brow, "Can he fight?"

"I've tried. Limited success." Slade remarked.

Oliver gave Slade a mock frown, "Sitting right here."

"Well," Shado said, "I haven't tried yet."

Oliver's lips tightened as Slade chuckled at what Shado was suggesting.

Oliver had no idea what the point of slapping water was but at least he did not have to watch Slade and Shado flirt.

* * *

\- Starling City -

Oliver's breath caught in his throat, his eyes wide.

Aqua met dark brown.

Slade smiled, "Hello." he held a hand out, taking the few steps that separated the two of them, "Mr Queen, I assume?"

Oliver nodded, "Um, yeah. That's me."

Slade's smile grew.

Oliver wanted to punch the fucker right in the face.

* * *

\- Liànyù -

"Draw the bow." Shado told Oliver.

Oliver looked at the bow. The slapping water had done wonders to cool his anger, he now felt more relaxed, more sure of himself. He drew back the bow string and held it perfectly still. He had done it? He had done it.

Slade smiled. "I'll be damned."

Oliver's heart smelled with warmth at the Australian's reaction, he then slowly moved the wire back, knowing that his anger with the older man was returning.

The blonde turned to Shado. He was starting to like her; she was a very patient and polite women and he felt bad about turning his anger on her before. "What now?"

She smiled. "We teach you to shoot."

Oliver gave her an odd look for a second before realising 'we' probably meant Shado and her father. Yao Fei was a good man, who Oliver would get back.

"First however, kid, we hunt." Slade added.

Oliver turned to the older man and nodded.

No more distractions.

* * *

\- Starling City -

"I served in the navy since I was eighteen." Slade told Oliver, taking a seat at the dinning room table, next to the blonde.

Moira took her leave to attend to some paper work, Raisa left too, the two women ushered Thea away also, giving the two men time to get used to each other

"Oh?" Oliver nodded, faking interest. His eyes returned to his tea, anything to look away from the man."Fascinating. Why did you come to Starling city?"

"To meet an old friend."

Oliver hummed, once again nodding, although his eyes twitched every so slightly. He paused for a second, listening out for anyone before asking, "Why are you really here?"

"To see you."

Oliver looked up, Slade seemed genuine. "Fuck you." he spat.

"I'm sorry for-"

"Sorry does not make up for what you did." Oliver hissed.

"Oli-"

"After living on an Island full of mercenaries **together** , hiding out in Russia, being hunted and working with ASIS **together** , after I stuck by you through your surgery." Oliver laughed, "All I get is a fucking note to say goodbye, leaving everything forever."

"Your choices where to join ASIS with me or go home." Slade said, looking Oliver dead in the eyes, "You would have regretted staying."

Oliver's eyes turned dark, "It may not have been official but I was your partner for three years, damn it." Oliver shook his head, "And it was my choice not yours. What happened to those Arabs you were so worried about finding you, anyway?"

"They would have killed you had they found out who I was. They're dead, all of them." His features softened, "I could tell you wanted to stay, Oliver. I could tell." he cupped Oliver's cheek, only to have it smacked away. "You wanted to see your family for years, I could not take that away from you."

Oliver squeezed his eyes shut, he could feel the tears starting to well. Damn hormones.

"Oli-"

"I waited for you."

"Hm?"

"I waited for you, for a week. I called everyone I knew, ASIS, Russian, Chinese..." Oliver met Slade's dark eyes, "I wanted you more."

"Oliver." A sad smile pulled at Slade's lips.

" **Wanted** , past tense." Oliver glared Slade down, "I don't want you in my life anymore."

Slade's eyes went wide.

"You ruined everything. It's over. Get the fuck out of here." Oliver tried his hardest to keep his voice low. "It's over. You got what you wanted. Now leave me the fuck alone. You can't just come back. I mean first you-" Oliver stopped. He did not regret the pregnancy, that last night they had together. He wished he could have those years back but they were gone. He should have known it would end.

Slade took hold of Oliver's cheek again.

Oliver pulled away, "Would you just fuck off already?!"

"Your crying?"

Oliver paused. Moving his fingertips to his cheek, he felt the cooling wetness. Hormones were no fun.

"Oliver?" Slade was really confused. Oliver was very strong when it came to his emotions, not that he was not an open book to Slade but he never just started crying so suddenly. He must have really hurt the younger man. "I'm sorry." he said, his voice husky and pained.

"This is your fault." Oliver said, wiping away the tears with his sleeve.

Slade moved forward; wrapping his arms around Oliver and pulling the blonde to his chest.

"No." Oliver said, pushing against the broad chest, "I'm not letting you fuck with me again. I'm still recovering from the last time."

It kind of just slipped out.

Oliver was lucky enough that Slade did not think about it too deeply.

Slade wrapped an arm around Oliver's lower back, "I'm sorry for what I did. I just wanted you to be happy." He pulled Oliver closer. Upon doing so he felt Oliver's belly against his. Had he put on weight?

Oliver tensed in his arms.

Slade could feel Oliver's define ribs with his arm and his prominent shoulder bone with his hand. How was... It was then that Oliver words rang out in his head.

"Wait." Slade moved a hand up under Oliver's shirt.

"Hey!"

Slade felt the rise of a baby bump with his hand. He could not believe it. He had to ask even when he knew the answer. "You're pregnant?" Slade was not even sure if he wanted his assumption to be true, he just had to know.

Oliver looked into Slade's eyes, eyes he had once truly cared for. He was not so sure now. "Yes." his head fell forward, resting on Slade's chest. These last few days had been so stressful.

They just sat there together, Slade stroked his thumb up the rise of bump. For the first few seconds it felt like they were back on the Island or in a hotel either provided by Anatoli Knyazev; the leader of the Solntsevskaya Bratva or by ASIS. Oliver could not help burying his face in Slade's chest, inhaling Slade's wonderful naturel odour, covered by the scent of the new suit he was wearing.

"Did it happen the last time we were together?" Slade asked.

Oliver pulled back, nodding, not trusting his voice as he felt another tear run down his cheek.

"I'm sorry for leaving you like this." Slade said, pulling his hand away from Oliver's bump.

Oliver moved as far away as the chair would allow, wrapping an arm around his baby.

"No." Slade held up his hands, "I mean for leaving you alone to deal with this."

Oliver gave the man a distrusting look.

* * *

\- Liànyù -

"You really do surprise me sometimes, kid. Your improving." Slade smiled, turning his head back to look at Oliver.

Ironic that Slade praises Oliver, one of the things the blonde craves most due to Slade's unimpressed nature, and it's the last thing he wants to hear from Slade right now. It makes him sound like a child or a dog.

_"Oh, Wilson. Still in command, eh? I thought your little pet had staged a coup d'état."_

Oliver's lips twitched at the memory of Fyers's words.

"Something on your mind?" Slade asked.

Oliver shook his head, "Nothing to worry about." he said, almost walking into Slade as the older man stopped walking.

Slade tilted his head in question, "Oh?"

"Shouldn't we be hunting?" Oliver walked around the Aussie.

"Once you tell me what caused you to shove that stick up your arse." Slade followed the blonde, a smirk on his face, "It wasn't one of those pieces of bamboo we use for fighting is it." he hissed at the idea before his smirk returned, "If so, I don't want it back."

Slade waited for an answer but didn't even get a shake of the head from the young billionaire. "Oliver." he ordered, stopping in place.

Oliver held back both the shiver that want to run down his spine and the fear bubbling in his belly at Slade's gravelly voice, a pitch lower in annoyance. He just kept walking.

"The hell is wrong with you?"

Oliver sighed, "Can we please just hunt already?"

Slade quickly moved forward and grabbed Oliver's forearm. "Why are you angry with me?"

"The quicker we do this, the quicker we can save Yao Fei." he said. The best lie was the truth, just not the one they were after.

"And?" Slade asked, releasing his grip

"And..." Oliver sighed, "And I don't think we should do this anymore." he said. He started to walk again. "We're not alone anymore, it'll only get in the way. We should quit while we're ahead." he said, "You'll be fine. Use your hand."

Now that took Slade by surprise. He stared at the back of the blonde's head and then it clicked. He started to walk again, "It must have been uncomfortable watching Shado and I spar." his voice lowered. "Her, sitting on top of me like that. She was on my stomach but just imagine if she had been a little lower." At the tense in Oliver's shoulders, Slade knew his theory was correct. "Your jealous."

"Slade." Oliver sighed.

"I'm not interested in her."

Oliver stopped and turned to the Australian.

"Do you want to know why I never kissed you on the lips?" Slade strolled up to Oliver, their bodies only inches apart.

"Why?" Oliver asked, his voice quiet.

Slade raised his hand to Oliver's cheek, his gloved thumb rubbing the blonde's bottom lip. "I believe that kisses such as that should be for those I wish to be with."

Oliver blinked. It did not sound like rejection, more like an offer. "What do you want?"

"What do you want?" Slade asked, tilting his head and grinning.

Oliver looked down, this was all a little too much at once. At the feeling of Slade's lips on his forehead, Oliver shut his eyes.

Slade moved his lips to Oliver's ear and whispered; "What do you want?" As Slade pulled back Oliver opened his eyes. Green orbs engraved with waves of blue meeting black.

"You." Oliver said and kissed the man.

* * *

\- Starling City -

"How is the little one?" Slade asked, "You were in the hospital yesterday."

Oliver wiped away the tear, "Baby's fine. What do you want Slade?"

Slade held his hand out, palm flat, "I wanted to just be with you. Now I want to be with you and our child."

Oliver searched for lies in his dark eyes.

"I understand if you can't forgive me and I'll never stop being sorry for what I did," he said, "but give me the chance to make up for it."

"I..." Oliver looked to his bump, stroking it with his hand. He moved his hand to Slade's. "I have my first scan on Wednesday. You can come."

Slade smiled, wrapped his fingers around the pale hand in his, pretty much engulfing it. "Thank you."

Oliver felt a smile pull at his lips.

"Can I..." Slade held out his other hand.

Oliver looked at it and then finally his glaze met Slade's. Oliver moved forward and kissed him. It was a simple joining of lips and Slade did no more than kiss Oliver back. Pulling back, Oliver nodded.

Slade placed his hand on Oliver's bump, fingers spread out to touch as much of it as possible. "Your having our baby."

"Isn't that a song?" Oliver asked, resting his hand on Slade's, his other still in Slade's grip.

Slade smirked, "Yeah, close enough."


	5. Hello, Little One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lie-in or lie in, is an English term used in places like Australia. It just means to sleep late in the morning.
> 
> Also, I had said before that Slade had surgery on his face AND that he had taken the mirkure. This is mostly because I did not know about the mirkure (like everyone else) when Slade got burned and that was round about the time I was introducing Slade into the story.
> 
> I'm going to say that mirkure did heal him and make him stronger but it left him with scars that he later had fixed with the use of surgery. I also feels that this makes Arrow a little more realistic.

Six days. Six days of pretending not to know each other like the friends and lovers they were. In a way, it did help. Oliver had not kissed Slade since their reunion, he needed time to think. Even when deep down he wanted so badly kiss and hold the other man again, more than anything. Those six days were almost like they were re-learning each other, figuring out where they stood.

Oliver lay on his back on the hospital bed, hands behind his head, eyes shut. It felt so naturel to just be hanging around with Slade again.

"I've got some real weird cravings at the moment." the blonde said.

"Hm?" Slade blinked from where he had been absent-mindedly tracing Oliver's define jaw and soft lips with his dark eyes.

"Beef potato chips."

"Not bad."

"Pickles with strawberry ice-cream."

"That's different."

"And dirt."

Slade perked up at that, "Dirt?" he knitted his brows, "Why dirt?"

"No idea." Oliver said, a smile pulling at his lips.

Slade loved it when he smiled. "Which one's the strongest."

"Dirt."

Slade smirked. "We can ask your doctor what it is your body wants and then go have it for lunch. Worse comes to worse, I'm sure there was a gardening centre near by."

Oliver's smile grew at that.

Aqua, seeming crystal blue in the bright hospital lights, and brown eyes turned to the door, as it opened to reveal Dr Clark.

"Oli-" he paused when he saw Slade. "Um... Hello, I'm doctor Clark. Head of Pediatrics." he held a hand out to Slade.

"Slade Wilson." Slade shook the hand.

Oliver held a hand to Slade, "The father."

"Oh." The doctor's eyes went wide.

Oliver did not feel uncomfortable like he would have guessed, he felt more relaxed if anything. Although small fiery butterflies flew around his stomach.

"Well," Clark smiled wildly, "let me introduce you to that baby of yours."

Slade, Oliver could tell, felt just as anxious as him. Oliver had told him about what happened with China White and the older man had looked liked he was planning to do down to the police station, break down the walls and rip out her insides... Which he did entirely have the ability to do with the mirakuru permanently in his system. It left the man with the same itching feeling of needing to see the baby, that Oliver had.

Slade lay a hand on the bed, right next to Oliver's bump, as the doctor moved around the bed. He left very protective of Oliver, more so than when he had been untrained.

"Alright," the doctor wheeled the ultrasound scanner over, before picking the gel from the small metal table it was on, "let's begin."

Slade's knuckles clicked as doctor lifted Oliver's shirt and rubbed the gel on his belly. He knew he was the only man Oliver had ever been with but something about having another man touching both Oliver **and** their baby was really starting to rile Slade.

Oliver put his hand on Slade's, a smirk on his lips.

Slade relaxed under his touch. The blonde knew him well.

"Before I forget. I've had this weird craving for... Dirt." Oliver said, waiting for the doctor to give him a horrified looked... And hoped dearly that he would not.

Doctor Clack nodded with a smile on his face. "It's just your body's way of telling you that you need something." He started to set up the scanned. "Dirt usually means a deficiency iron, protein or zinc." The screen flashed on. "It's nothing to worry about. Red meat for the iron, nuts for the protein... Peanuts, almond, pistachios and sunflower seeds have the highest amounts. And for the zinc; shellfish and dairy. However avoid all raw shellfish."

Oliver nodded, his lips pressed together in interest. "That's going to be a big lunch." He said, turning to Slade.

Slade gave the blonde a small smile, "How about nuts as snacks, a milkshake a day and for lunch; steak and shellfish?"

Oliver hummed in pleasure, "Sounds great." It sounded delicious, absolutely perfect, although that could have been because it was just what his body needed.

"That should get rid of your craving... for the time being any way." The doctor said.

Slade and Oliver looked the doctor with questionable looks. Oliver's grip tightened, his fingers slipping in between Slade's.

Doctor held his hands up, hands parted with slightly crooked fingers as if he was holding the explanation in his grasp. "A pregnant parent's body is more in tune with their and therefore the baby's needs. A craving will not mean that you will need it straight away, your body is just telling you that you are low in a certain nutrient or mineral."

"Oh, okay." Oliver nodded.

As the doctor turned back to the machine, grabbing the scanner head, Slade moved his hand under Oliver's so that they were palm to palm and took Oliver's hand before he could move away. Oliver squeezed his hand again.

"It's time to meet your baby." Doctor Clack said, holding up the scanner head, ready.

Oliver nodded.

The doctor set to work looking for the baby, rolling the scanner head up and down Oliver's lower belly, and with years of experience he found it in no time flat. "There you are." He smiled at the screen, before he looked over the baby. "And still looking good." He turned to the awaiting parents. "Would you like to see your baby?"

Oliver just lay there, still shocked that this was really happening. He nodded

Doctor Clack turned the screen around and... There it was.

"Fuck." Slade grinned wildly. There was his child. His and Oliver's child, something they made.

"Don't swear." Oliver warmed, although all his focus was on the screen.

Who knew a screen the size of that of a small laptop, covered by seemingly random patches of white on a black background could fill Oliver's heart with such warmth?

"And this here..." the doctor pointed at a white patch. "Is your baby."

"Wow." Oliver smiled brightly.

"Hello, little one." Slade said gently, eyes moving between the screen and Oliver's baby bump.

Doctor Clack showed the parents the developing parts of the baby, telling them what to expect over the following weeks and months.

With a copy of the ultrasound for each of them, Slade and Oliver stood, hands still linked.

"So Oliver?" Doctor Clack smiled, "You may have been right about putting off seeing the ultrasound, before." he said. "This seems like a much better occasion."

Oliver grinned at that. "Yeah."

Slade stroked his thumb along the side of Oliver's hand.

* * *

"She thought your sister was pregnant?" Slade grinned.

The twosome sat in a private booth, with steak and prawns, just as Slade suggested.

"Yeah." Oliver stuck a prawn into his mouth, nodding. He covered his mouth with his hand as he spoke again. "I laughed so hard."

"I heard."

Oliver paused in his chewing, hand still in front of his mouth. He blinked and nodded, "That's when you met my mom?" he asked, before he finally swallowed.

"Yeah. I did not mean to mention or accept the offer of being your bodyguard." he said. "But I believe she would have likely come to the idea sooner or later. And he or she," he smirked. They both remembered Shado. "would have got in the way when we talked. So the idea just made sense."

"Yeah. I get it." Oliver shook his head. "My hormones kind of got the best of me that first day."

"Your, you know." he waved his hand to emphasise his point. "Your allowed to be."

"Don't say that." Oliver snorted, "You'll regret it."

Slade chuckled.

* * *

Oliver's insides felt heavy as they arrived at the Queen manor but he pushed it away. It had only just gone dark, which meant it was kind of late seeing as it was October. He exited the car and was non too surprised when Slade did as well. The blonde walked up the steps to his door, reaching the top step, he span around, crossing his legs, the toes of one of his shoes pointing at the ground.

Slade was leaning against the car door that Oliver had left from. "What time tomorrow?"

"Nine."

"Ten." Slade said.

Oliver crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow with a smirk across his lips.

"You should have a lie-in." Slade continued.

Oliver felt the smile tugging at his lips. "Yeah. Okay."

Slade pushed himself off the car and strolled up the steps until he stood in front of Oliver, his heels edging ever so slightly off the step. "I'll see you in the morning." he said. He then lent forward and kissed Oliver's cheek. "Goodnight." His hand rested against Oliver's bump, eyes still on his. "To the both of you."

The risk of things going too far and someone seeing them was all that stopped Oliver from grabbing Slade and yanking him forward in to a kiss. "Goodnight." he said, his hand resting on Slade's for the briefest of seconds... before the door opened.

The two pulled away quickly, and looked over to see Thea.

"Hey, Ollie." She could not help the smile that pulled at her lips. She knew what today was, what Oliver likely had in his pocket. The scan of the baby.

* * *

The following morning Oliver did in fact sleep a little longer. After years of waking up mostly between four and seven, it felt a little unnatural and the over sleeping did give him a slight headache but he quickly removed.

Opening the door he saw Slade leaning against the car, as he had done last night.

"Morning." Oliver called.

"Morning." Slade said, opening the door for the billionaire.

Oliver hopped inside and grinned when he saw a plastic bag of mixed nuts and a milkshake on the dashboard.


	6. A Matter of Milkshakes

"Morning." Oliver said, as he answered the door. He stepped aside to let the man in.

Slade shut the door behind himself, "Morning." he kissed blonde's cheek, passing him a milkshake as he pulled away.

"Strawberry. Thank you." Oliver smiled. He had text Slade last night, asking him to get strawberry. He tended to have one most days. He could not have milkshakes everyday, as he would get sick.

"Anyone in?" Slade asked, looking around.

"No." Oliver said, before grabbing Slade's hand and leading him up stairs.

* * *

"I'll never get tired of this." Slade said, running his fingertips over Oliver's smooth skin.

"I can tell." Oliver smiled.

"Are you sure about telling them, today?" Slade asked.

"Yeah."

Oliver lay on his bed, belly exposed, with Slade lying next to him. Face to belly. Now sixteen weeks pregnant, it was pretty obvious that Oliver would be having a kid and Slade was by no means a stupid man. Had the two of them not been as close as there were Slade **still** would have figured it out by now.

"I'll be right there with you." Slade said. He kissed Oliver's belly, right next to his belly button.

Oliver moved his hand to the back of Slade's head, holding him there. "I know."

After a few minuets of lying there, Oliver felt a poking feeling on his side. He sucked in a breath.

"What?"

"It's nothing."

Slade looked up into those bright eyes. "What's wrong?"

Oliver sighed, throwing his head back. Slade was not the kind of guy to let something go, especially if a pregnant Oliver was involved. "Trapped wind. I've had it since last night."

"Oh, right." Slade lay his hand on Oliver's belly. "I just wanted to be sure that there was nothing thing wrong or-" Slade froze. He had felt something knock against his fingers. "That's not trapped wind."

"Um?" Oliver looked up to meet Slade's wide eyes and smile.

"That was our baby."

Oliver paused. For a few seconds he sat there speechless... Then he realised what Slade had said. "Our- our baby?"

Slade took his hand and lay it on the spot that he had felt the movement.

The two waited for no more than a few seconds when Oliver felt it.

"Oh, wow." Oliver smiled, "That's our baby."

"Yes, it is." Slade lifted himself up so he could see Oliver. Before he could say anything else, the blonde grabbed the back of his head and pulled him down into a kiss.

The kiss was sweet and soft, when they pulled apart they went back to kiss again, and again, and again. Oliver's lips lay welcome to Slade's tongue and he shivered and ached his back as Slade ran a hand up his spine. Their bodies pulled close together, Slade kept his weight up as not to squash Oliver or the baby.

Oliver felt the heat swell in between his legs. He needed Slade on him, in him; fingers, tongue, cock. He needed to feel the man. Feel someone other than himself jerking at his hardening flesh. His thick cock stretching him open and-

"Oliver!" Moira called.

"Crap." Oliver groaned as they pulled apart.

"No swearing." Slade said. He moved off Oliver and the bed, "Let's head down." he turned back and held his hand out to Oliver.

The younger man took it. Pleased that his "enjoyment" had was leaving.

* * *

"Miss Queen." Slade greeted, "I hope you don't mind. I was helping Oliver sort some of the orders for his club."

"Oh?"

Before Slade could carry on, Oliver cut in.

"And I told him."

Moira blinked. He didn't mean...

"About the baby."

"Well, I kind on guessed that was the case." Slade added. Make it seem a little more realistic.

"And you have no problems with it?" Moira asked, eyeing the man.

"None at all." Slade said, "I'll protect the two of them."

Oliver felt his heart warm and he could not help the smile that pulled at his lips. "So we're all good." Oliver told his mother, "No more watching what we say."

Moira smiled but then it fell, becoming a full-blown frown. Her eyes looked anxious for a second before she blinked it away. "We will have to tell the public soon, Oliver."

"Yeah. I know." Oliver said, trying his best to keep his smile.

Slade just looked at Moira. She had good control over her emotions, much like her son... before the pregnancy. She was more than worried about telling the public. Was she ashamed? No, that was not it. What was she scared of?

Coming back to himself, Slade realised that Oliver would probably want to leave and Slade had always been a much better liar. He turned to Oliver, "Would you like to continue to your club, to get the stock ready for tonight?"

Oliver nodded, "I'd better."

Moira gave the polite smile, "I will see the two of you later then."

* * *

Thea stepped into her room, quickly removing her school uniform and slipping into a bright red shirt and a pair black skinny jeans. She could not believe what had happened to her today.

After school, her and a few friends went to get some vertigo; the newest and hottest drug in Starling City. Thea had to admit that since Oliver's return and the new baby, she had started to cut down. She did not really feel that she needed it anymore... Wanted was a different matter but she was getting there.

They had cut thought a bad part of the city and a guy in a red hoodie stole her bag. He was pretty handsome, with his define features, soft lips and bright opal green eyes.

She sighed. She should really not be fancying a guy who mugged her. She made her way to her brother's room to see if he was in, Slade was not here so it was unlikely. She did not see her brother when she stepped into his room, which was unsurprising but she did see a plastic milkshake cup filled with an inch of pink liquid.

Thea hummed in interest. She went over to it, it smelt nice but there ware no labels to say where it was from.

* * *

"Hey, mum." Thea said, walking into the kitchen, "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I had to come back to grab some papers." Moira sighed, "Mr. Wilson picked up Oliver a little while ago."

"Did he manage to sleep in?" Thea smirked.

"Yes. He was still asleep when I left an hour ago."

Thea stilled in place. Oliver woke up no longer than an hour ago and Slade had only just picked him up. Did he drive himself to get a milkshake? Must of.

"Oh, and Oliver told Wilson about the baby."

"Bout time." Thea groaned, "I almost told him several times."

* * *

The arrow cut through the last tennis ball, pinning it to the wall with all the rest.

"You have been practicing." Slade said, moving close to Oliver and wrapping his arms around the blonde's bump.

Oliver lowered the bow, passing it to one had to rest his other arm around Slade's. He sighed as Slade kissed the side of his neck, tilting his head to the side to give the man room.

He kissed up and down the pale skin, he ran his teeth along Oliver's neck and grinned as the younger man let out a soft moan. Slade untangled himself from Oliver and moved around to face him before kissing the man. Oliver dropped the bow, the metal on it clanged on the floor, echoing around the large and mostly empty room.

The kiss was returned immediately and barely a second past until tongues were introduced. Oliver wrapped his arms around Slade's neck to hold him close. Today had been the first time they had kissed like this since their last night together, four months ago. Slade's hands ran down Oliver's sides and rested on his hips. It felt so good to be with each other again.

"Wha-" was all Oliver managed to get out when Slade left the kiss and moved down, placing his hands under his thighs. Oliver was lifted into the air, Slade holding him up with ease, hands moving to his firm behind. Oliver smiled, locking his legs around Slade and kissing the man again. The mirkure had made Slade a lot stronger, which was saying a lot when you knew him before it. Oliver had been with Slade longer with the mirkure then he had without, and he had to admit he liked it when Slade did things like this.

Much like pulling Oliver closer had lead to Slade discovering the baby, Oliver pressing against him made the older man pause and pull back.

Oliver leant forward to kiss him but was met with his tanned cheek instead. "Slade?" Oliver tried to meet the man's eyes but they were looking away from him. "What's wrong?"

"I can't do this." Slade said. He moved over to a mental table and sat Oliver on it, body not even remotely shaking as he slowly lowered the man.

"Why not?" Oliver asked.

Slade shook his head as he walked a few steps away. He did not want to talk about it.

* * *

Oliver put the matter with Slade to the back of his mind when he went for dinner. He could not eat when he was upset or worried. It was not until he was in his bathroom, after a nice long hot shower, that the memory came back to mind.

He wiped away the steam and looked at himself in the mirror, that covered the wall above the sink and cupboards. His face was fatter. As were his hands and the baby bump was hard to miss. Just because Slade loved the baby, it did not mean that it made Oliver attractive.

Knowing that Slade could near always tell what Oliver was feeling from the sound of his voice, the blonde picked up his phone from his bed and text him. He sat down, as holding a towel around his hips and texting at the same time was a hard thing to do.

_Mind if I come over to yours tomorrow night? Order some takeout?_

There was a knock on his door.

Oliver threw his phone on the bed and proceeded to pull on a pair of baggy pajama bottoms. As the door opened, Oliver quickly grabbed a dark dress shirt he had left on the floor and pulled it on. Looking over his shoulder he saw Thea.

"Sorry." she said, stepping inside his room.

The shirt probably looked like a pajama top from the behind, which Oliver was thankful for. "It's alright." he said, standing and grabbing a hoodie from his draw to slip over it. "What's up?"

"Not much." Thea said. She about to go on when she saw Oliver's phone flash on. She only gave it a passing glance but the words she saw made her pause.

_Yeah sure. Want me to get you a milkshake in the morning?_

Thea's eyes were wide. She blinked. "Just wanted to see how you were doing." She said, her eyes on the screen till it turned dark.

That was different.


	7. A Matter of Fatherhood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers to the end of Die Hard 2
> 
> To all my readers of this story and my others, you really make me laugh with some of your comments. I love hearing from all of you!

Oliver had gone through every item of clothing he had, trying to find what would match what and which would also show of his butt and hide his belly. No such luck on the latter and he felt horrible for even trying. It was their baby and Oliver loved her dearly. Questions kept running through his mind. When could they have sex again? Did normal couples? Was it right that Oliver wanted to? The baby was right there. Was he being the unfair one? Was he over thinking all of this?

Oliver sighed. He held his face in his hands. Why was he even thinking about this, it was eight in the morning. All he wanted was to be close to Slade. He missed being with him so damn much.

There was an knock at the door, "Ollie?" a voice called out. The familiar name and sound told Oliver that it was his sister. She had remembered to knock. Good.

"Come in." Oliver called.

Thea came in. Spotting the clothes all over the fall and bed, she looked at her brother with raised brows. "Was there a hurricane I didn't know about?"

Oliver started grabbing clothes from the floor, a little pleased that he was still able to bend down and grab stuff, with only a slight difficulty which was only going to get harder. "I was going through everything. Trying to see what I can still wear." He chucked the load on the bed. "I need to get some paternity clothes and I need to tell the public about the baby."

"You could just twitter it." Thea suggested. "Get it over with."

"Twitter?"

Thea thought about explaining social netting for a second but quickly gave up on the idea. "Post it online. Reporters will see it and they'll tell everyone for you."

"It would get it out of the way but..." Oliver shook his head, "I love my baby. I'm proud of becoming a father."

Thea smiled, "Okay. Then how about a party? Invite some reporters that will write something nice. I'll ask mom about it if you want?"

Oliver smiled. "Thanks Thea."

"How about tonight? It's a little short notice but-"

"I already have plans." Oliver said.

Thea held down the smirk. "Oh?"

"Yeah," Oliver shifted uncomfortably. "Slade and I were just going to get take out."

"So, a date?"

"What?" Oliver's eyes boggled, "A... A date? Why would you think that?"

"Well there's the fact that your having dinner," she pointed at the bed, "you're trying to find an outfit to impress-"

"Thea, I-"

"And he's been bringing you milkshakes."

Oliver blinked. "Oh."

"Yes, oh." Thea shook her head, "Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"It's just," Oliver stuttered, trying to find the right words. "It's new and... Forget it."

"Ollie!" Thea ran over to her unbearably tall brother and grabbed his arm. "Tell me. I'll understand."

"Thea." Oliver sighed.

"It won't leave this room. I promise." She lead him to his bed, she sat down, her hand still on his arm. "I give good advise."

Oliver sat down. "I just don't think he likes me in that way, okay." he grumbled.

"He might. You're going to have dinner together, before you know it you'll be kissing and," at the way he could not meet her eyes, Thea practically squealed; "You guys kissed!"

"Keep it down." Oliver hushed.

"Oh my God, Ollie." She smiled. "When? When?"

"Yesterday." Oliver said. "After I told him."

Thea's smile grew. If that was even possible at this point. "That is so sweet. What are you worried about? He clearly likes you."

"Yeah, I know but... Just..." Oliver sighed.

"Just what?"

"I'm pregnant."

"Get out of here! Really?"

Oliver glared at her. "It's just not really..." he waved his hands in circles, hoping some how she would understand.

Thea cocked a brow, "Ollie, I was never that good at charades."

Oliver looked away. "Attractive."

Thea just looked at the back of her brother's head for a second. It felt a little odd talking to him about something like this but it felt kind of sweet at the same time. "He kissed you after he found out. Right?"

Oliver looked back and nodded. That was true.

"He knew what he was getting into." Thea said. "And isn't it a little early to be thinking **that** far ahead?"

"Well, this is mortifying." Oliver groaned.

Thea giggled. "I think it's a good thing. We're family, we should talk about this stuff. Limited details on some parts of course."

Aqua met crystal blue, time passed...

Oliver pressed his lips together to stop himself from laughing but alas he failed. He snorted, "This is so awarded."

"I agree."

The two of them laughed.

* * *

Oliver looked at himself in the mirror. Dark green dress shirt, black polo shirt, dark blue jeans and a pair boots. He nodded, it looked good. The black thinned his belly and the open dress shirt buffed up the rest of his body, making his belly look even flatter. His hands moved down to his behind, where the jeans held him quite nicely. He smiled.

Oliver walked over to the door and opened it. Siting on his bed, with one leg folded over her knee, was Thea.

"Lookin' good." She said, grinning wildly.

"Um, thanks." Oliver said, still feeling a little uncomfortable about the whole thing.

"Ollie, it's going to be alright." Thea assured. "I'd say bring protection but..." she let the sentence fade.

"Thea!"

"Couldn't resist." Thea held her hands up in defence.

Oliver let the matter pass. "It was what I was looking for. Thank you."

Thea held her tongue from saying something like; "If you want to thank me, get yourself laid." and instead held her arms open for a hug.

Oliver smiled and hugged his little sister.

Pulling back from the hug, Thea asked, "When is Slade picking you up today?" adding, "Which is the coolest name ever, by the way."

Oliver grinned, his white teeth on show. "It is kind of cool." He had to admit that. "Ten."

"With a milkshake?"

Oliver's grin grew. "With a milkshake."

"That is just too cute." Thea commented before she moved to the door, "I've got to go to school and if I don't see you later you have a good time tonight." she said. "I'll cover for you if you stay the night but text me if you do."

Oliver smiled.

* * *

Oliver opened the door to see Slade, milkshake in hand.

"Nutella. Figured you would like it." Slade said, passing it to Oliver.

"Nutella?" The blonde took the drink, eyeing it with interest. "Sounds nice." He looked back to the older man, who kept his distance, not kissing his cheek like he did every morning. "You can't even kiss me now." Oliver mumbled, looking away.

Slade blinked. He did not mean to hurt Oliver, he just... Not wanting to think about the matter, Slade shook his head. He knew he was doing the right thing but...

Oliver looked into Slade's borderline black eyes, as the man's warm hands cupped his face.

Slade gave a weak smile before he kissed him.

Oliver kissed back.

As the two turned to go the car, a ray of light shined his Slade's eyes. He groaned, covering his them with his hand.

"I got it." Oliver ran over to the car, climbing inside and quickly found Slade's sunglasses in the glove compartment. He jumped out and passed them to Slade.

"Thanks." Slade said, taking the glasses and slipping them on, keeping his hand hooded over the glasses till he got used to the light. "Much better." he said, removing the hand completely.

"Do you still wear your eye patch?" Oliver asked.

"Only at my apartment, which I'll show you tonight." Slade grinned. He moved his hand to Oliver's belly, brushing the back of his fingers across the bump.

"I look forward to seeing it." Oliver said, stroking the back of his nails along the inside of Slade's hand.

* * *

The day was spend as most days were; setting the club, making supply orders and some light training down in Oliver's little hideout.

Oliver went about his yoga stretches, as much as he could anyway, followed by making the arrow heads for his arrows. He did not really need them, he had plenty but it was good to have a load in storage when shit hit the fan. Also just like with his yoga, it would only get more difficult to do later, so he might as well do it now.

Slade understood, even if he did not like it. He would always have his katana swords and guns were not exactly a hard thing to come by, arrows on the other hand were. He did help his boyfriend out however, making the explosives and attaching them to the trick arrows. He had after all taught Oliver how to make them. He always remembered the sense of pride he felt when Oliver told him about his idea.

Oliver's phone rang, a little jingle that came with the device. Oliver stopped the spinning belt that sharpened his arrows, it was pretty loud after all.

Slade also paused from where he was sitting at a metal table, wiring the explosive to the arrow so that Oliver would be able to detonate it.

Oliver glanced at the screen before answering, "Tommy. What's up?" there was a pause. "What happened?"

Slade looked up.

Oliver felt his eyes and looked over. He smiled, shaking his head.

Slade turned back to the wiring.

"Yeah, of course. I actually need help running the place, if you would like to be the manager?" Oliver asked and a few seconds later he nodded, "I look forward to having you here. Where are you staying?" Another pause, "Well it's not that bad is it then." he grinned, even if Tommy could not see. "Come over tomorrow, about eleven. We'll get things sorted out then. Alright. Bye."

"What was that about?" Slade asked as Oliver hung up the phone.

"Tommy's dad cut him off, he wanted to know if I could get him a job at the club. So he'll be working here and staying at Laurel's." Oliver said.

Slade nodded. "Less for you to deal with."

Oliver grinned. "True." He reached his arms up and arched his back till it let out a light pop.

"You should stop now." Slade said, abandoning the arrow for now. "Carrying a baby causes enough strain on your back as it is."

Oliver rotated his head left and right, working out the kinks in his neck. "Yeah, okay."

"Want to go back to mine and watch a film?"

Oliver smiled, "Yeah... But," he lifted his watch to look at the time, "It's not even two."

"Well," Slade stood, walking over to Oliver, "how about we get some lunch and then we should get you some paternity clothes? You said you needed some."

"If some one finds out it's me-"

"Yeah, I know." He grinned. "You are my partner and not just romantically."

Oliver smiled, remembering the days they worked for ASIS.

"So, how would we have handled this back then?"

* * *

Oliver eyed the stretchy pants Slade picked up, through the small camera in the top button of his suit jacket. "We could have just used the internet, you know?"

"I know." Slade said into the phone in his other hand. It would look a little weird if he was talking to himself. "But that takes time and you need this stuff now."

"I guess." Oliver said. He was sat in the back of Slade's car, his work laptop on his lap. "That'll be fine." He said as Slade showed him the size label.

"Well, soon we can go back to mine. Grab some Chinese, watch a movie." Slade said, his voice so unbelievably husky and deep. Oliver could almost imagine the grin pulling at his lips.

Oliver just had to smile, "I'm looking forward to it. Which reminds me, I'll need to go back home, have a shower and change first."

"Right." Slade said, moving on to the next item of clothing.

Oliver could feel the nerves bubbling in his stomach. Tonight was the night.

* * *

Oliver had the quickest but most thorough shower he could, washing his hair with that orange smelling shampoo that Slade liked. He then quickly but careful shaved his face completely clear of stubble. He did not use any sprays as Slade only liked the naturel smells, and he did not like the taste of sprays or shower gel on Oliver's skin.

He was going to do everything in his power to make sure this night went well. This was the best he would look until after the baby and he...

Oliver leant against the cream walls in just his black silk boxers, his back slid down the wall until he hit the floor, likely staining the wall this wet body. "This is so stupid." he said. He should not be trying so hard. His emotions were all over the place.

He pushed himself off the wall and stood. He survived a Island full of mercenaries, defeated Ivo and his men, hid out in Russian with the Solntsevskaya Bratva, he worked with them and ASIS, he was a master archer, bomb maker and fighter; hand to hand, knifes and swords. He had not been truly terrified since he had Billy Wintergreen for the second time, sure that this time the man would kill him but then Slade killed him. He saved Oliver and gave up his chance to go home. They had a bond of thrust which became stronger as time went on. Slade protected him and trained him to protect himself and others.

Slade had always been there and if he did leave he always came back, from coming back to get Oliver off the landmine to coming to Starling City.

"Twitch and I will open your throat." Oliver smirked, resting hand on his bump. "It was the first thing your father ever said to me. Weird, isn't it?"

* * *

Slade turned as he heard the light thumps of someone coming down the stairs. It was Oliver... "Hello." he grinned.

"Hey." Oliver strolled up to Slade. He grabbed the sides of his own open dress shirt. "You like?"

"I like." Slade slipped his hands under the dark green dress shirt, running them down Oliver's sides.

"Good to know." Oliver smiled.

Slade leant forward and kissed Oliver's cheek, pulling back he moved to kiss the blonde's lips, moving a hand up to cup his cheek as he did so. When they separated, Slade rested his forehead on Oliver's, the tips of their noses touching.

Oliver moved his nose side to side against Slade, smiling when the man chuckled at the eskimo kisses

* * *

Slade lead Oliver out of the hall, their fingers intertwined. "Here we have the living room." The walls were a light blue, the carpet grey, the furniture simple with a few personal touches like the katana swords on display on the wall and what looked to be a box under the sofa, likely containing a gun, a 45 caliber desert eagle if Oliver did not know better. "And the bathroom." Slade said, moving to the room and opening the door. Switching on the light revealed that the room had a bath with a shower fixed to the wall. Slade then lead the blonde to the kitchen. "The kitchen." he said, lighting up the room. "Would you like a drink?" he asked, his hand leaving Oliver's to go to the fridge.

"Yeah, sure." Oliver followed. Glancing inside, the billionaire saw mostly fresh food, a draw stocked full of vegetables and fruit and many cartons of different juices. Slade was not exactly the biggest fan of juice, so why so much? "Wow, no beer."

"I thought it would be a little unfair." Slade said. "The juices are for you by the way."

Oliver blinked, he was really surprised at the older man. It was also then that Oliver noticed the smile that was desperately trying to pull at his lips. Slade was very good at hiding emotions, which meant that he was not really trying but then why hide it at all?

"Cranberry juice? You've always loved the stuff." Slade said, pulling out the carton.

"Please."

Slade grabbed a glass from the cupboard, filling it with the red liquid. He passed the glass to Oliver before putting the carton back into the open fridge.

"Thanks." Oliver said. He then placed the glass on the side. "Would you like to show me the rest of your place first?"

Slade's lips twitched. He so wanted to smile. "But of course." He took Oliver's hand in his again. There were two doors left, we walked him over to the one closest to the front door. "This," he said, switching on the light. "Is the bedroom."

The bed was big, a king sized maybe. The bed frame was all dark oak and the covers were what looked to be black silk, along with the top row of pillows, the second row were red.

"Looks comfy." Oliver commented. It was just then that he noticed the flat screen TV on the wall opposite the bed.

"It is." Slade said, slipping an arm around Oliver's waist.

Oliver turned and wrapped his arms around Slade's neck.

Slade stilled for a second before wrapping his arms around Oliver, gently. The stillness passed but he still felt tense.

Oliver kissed him, hoping to help the man relax. Slade kissed back and a second after he seemed to relax. His crossed hands slipped down into Oliver's jean pockets, which made the blonde smile into the kiss. Oliver pulled away from the kiss and rested his head on Slade's chest. He felt the man kiss his head and his eyes fell shut with a pleased sigh. He listening to Slade's heart thump in his chest.

Opening his eyes, Oliver saw the last door. "What's behind the other door?" He could not help but ask. "A closet?" He felt Slade's heart beat quicken.

"No. Why don't you go have a look."

Oliver looked up to see Slade, he was mere seconds away from bursting into a bright smile. What was behind that door? The younger man pulled away and walked up to the door, glancing at Slade one more time before he turned the knob. He hand flew to his mouth is disbelief, his aqua eyes wide. He felt Slade come up behind him and switch on the light. It had one of those turning switches that gradually made the room brighter.

The room was filled with a multitude of stuff animals, large and small, along with other children's toys, a bookcase full of books and right in the middle was a bassinet.

Slade slipped his arms around Oliver, hands on his baby bump. "Do you like it?" he asked.

If it was hard not to cry before, it was near impossible now. "Yes." Oliver said, voice weak. He covered his eyes with his hand. He was not going to cry at this, he was not.

Slade kissed Oliver's pale cheek, before resting his chin on the man's shoulder. "Maybe once we know the gender, we can go out and get some clothes for the little one?"

Oliver nodded.

Slade smiled. "Your so adorable, you know that?"

Oliver nodded.

Slade chuckled. "Come on. I'll order the Chinese and you can go get comfy in my bed. There was a TV in there. I figured we could watch a movie in bed."

Oliver took a deep breath and pulled his hand away, he met Slade's dark eyes and smiled. "You're going to be a great father."

Slade could feel the ace in his chest at the words.

* * *

Food eaten, with plates left on the night stands and film nearly over, Slade sat with his back against the headboard, Oliver's head in his lap. He ran his finger's through the dirty blonde hair, admiring how, for a lack of a better word, fluffy it was.

 _"Holly! Here's your fucking landing light!"_ John Maclean cheered from the TV screen.

Oliver eyed the screen as the numerous planes landed, using the huge line of fire created by a plane leaking large amounts of fuel, said plane lay totally destroyed by the laughing hero of the story, parts scattered around the snow covered ground. "You remind me of him." Oliver mused.

"Hn?"

"Coming in with guns blazing, set off explosions, some how always surviving." Oliver listed.

Slade smirked. "I would say that your my Holly but I don't think you would suit a perm."

Oliver's shoulders shook with a laugh. He placed his hand on Slade's thigh. "I'll just stick to being yours."

Slade leant down and kissed his soft blonde hair. He took a breath, smiling at the lingering tangy smell of oranges.

Oliver's eyelids fell shut as Slade's hot breath blew down on his cheek.

"Yeah." Slade said, placing his hand on Oliver's baby bump. "I would be lost without the two of you."

Oliver rolled on to his back, opening his bright eyes to Slade's dark orbs, the tips of their noses touching. "Hello."

"Hey." Slade smiled and kissed Oliver.

Slade moved from the kiss and Oliver moved up to meet him. The kiss was slow, lazy almost, as Oliver lowered his head back to Slade's lap, the man's lips following his. Oliver placed his hand on Slade's shoulder, moving it down the side of his muscular chest, still as buff and strong as the first time he had seen it, that night when it rained and Slade stripped by the fire.

The next time they pulled away, Oliver moved to kiss Slade's neck, just under his jaw. He moved down Slade's neck, reaching his collar bone before the man pulled away.

"Oliver, I can't. Not while your..." Slade ran a hand through his hair, not knowing how to say it.

"Oh." Oliver mumbled. He moved away from Slade and walked out the bedroom, grabbing his coat off the back of the sofa as he passed.

Slade just sat there, not sure what had happened for a second, before he sprung up. "Wait, Oliver." Slade called, running after him. He stopped but a foot away as Oliver turned around.

"I want to be with you. I want you to be in my- Our life." Oliver smiled weakly. "But I can't force you to be attracted to me." he said, looking to the front door.

"What?"

"I'll get a taxi." Oliver said, moving to the door. He grabbed the knob and turned it. As he opened the door but a crack, it was slammed shut by Slade's tanned hand. "I don't want you to drive me back Slade." Oliver said, voice strict. He had to go.

"I don't find you unattractive."

Oliver blinked. He turned around and leant his back against the door. "What is it then?"

Slade sighed, letting his head drop on to Oliver's shoulder. He was exhausted.

Oliver ran his fingers thought Slade's hair, his voice taking a more gentle tone. "You can tell me."

"I don't want to hurt you or the baby."

Oliver raised a brow. "What do you mean?"

Slade lifted his head. "Since the mirkure I've become stronger and lost a great deal of mental control. The first time we had sex after I took it, I left you covered in bruises." He closed his eyes again. "I just don't trust myself not to hurt you two."

Oliver moved his hand down from Slade's hair to cup his cheek. "It was the best sex I had ever had at the time."

Slade opened his dark eyes.

"And it only just got better as we figured out how much you had changed had affected you." Oliver smiled. "I understand. I do. It's really sweet and if I ever thought you could hurt our baby, **I** would have been the one to stop this." He lifted his other hand to Slade's cheek. "I need to feel you again. Be with you."

Slade looked unsure.

"The first time we were together, you asked me if I trusted you." Oliver said. "Do you trust me?"

"I trust you." Slade said.

Oliver kissed him. Just a simple touching of lips. "Then trust me that you won't hurt us." He moved a hand down and took hold of Slade's.

Slade squeezed the hand and kissed the blonde's lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mz_valkyrie from archiveofourown, you called it. Slade was worried about hurting the baby. Which is why I did not reply to your message.


	8. A Matter of Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had some trouble writing lately.
> 
> This chapter was inspired by the song You're So Cool by Kate Thompson

S lade stood at the side of the bed and looked over the young blonde. He lay in Slade's bed, blankets curled around his belly, keeping their baby warm while his feet and shoulders lay bare. It was normally how Oliver slept as Slade's already naturally warm skin was heated further by the mirakuru that rushed through his body, storing energy, ready to put it into healing wounds or to make his muscles work that much harder and do what should have been impossible.

Slade had long since learnt that not using that energy caused mood swings, lack of control, paranoia, accidental crushing of furniture and phones, and general over use of strength. The high body temperature was a constant, the best way the excess energy could be used up. It had only ever gone down to a level by normal standards as 'a tad on the low side' when he'd been stabbed severely, cutting right through him and one of his kidneys which healed completely within a few days.

He ran his thump along Oliver's angular jaw, his skin was soft even as stubble started to grow. This kid had both been his anchor and greatest weakness. He had faked burning the mirakuru and had been ready to hand Ivo the drug in exchange for Oliver's safety. Sara's plan had worked however. They had got out of there but Ivo was still at large and would come back to get it. Years of new and old enemies -the people that hired Fyers, would you believe it?- had kept Oliver with Slade that little bit longer but when all was said and done, here was Oliver; asleep in Slade's bed, with Slade's baby in his belly. The Aussie could not really ask for more.

The man smiled as Oliver moaned in his sleep, leaning into Slade's touch. No matter how much he focused on Oliver, running his lips along the man's cream skin, thrusting up into that tight heat as the blonde rode him for all his worth, his large tanned protective hand resting on the side of Oliver's belly. There was still that thought, that feeling nagging in the back of his mind.

Due to Ivo taking the only sample of mirakuru left -Slade's blood- and extracting the life altering drug from it, managing to kill four and infect one sap that later had to be put down, which was by no means an easy job to do, they now knew that mirakuru had taken permanent residence in the blood. Never filtering out or even getting weaker with time. It left Slade wondering if it went deeper in him; in his very bones, in is DNA, leaching out into his blood which strengthened his muscles and healed his wounds. If it was part of him, if it could be passed with taking it from his blood, could it be passed down to his child?

He sat down on the bed with a sigh. It was unlikely. If Oliver had taken it maybe but it was a bit far fetched to believe that such a thing could be passed down, then again it was damn right ridiculous that Slade could pull a man's heart from his chest in no more than a second or that he could now heal from wounds that should have killed him ten times over.

Slade stood. He would have to call Moira and tell her that Oliver had fallen asleep and he did not want to wake him but after that he was going back to bed.

* * *

"Ah, good morning." Moira smiled at the two as she make her way into the front room. She turned to Slade, "I hope Oliver staying was not an inconvenience."

"Not even the slightest." he said, removing his jacket. As he did so, his keys slipped out the unzipped pocket and fell out. He reached down for them. "I apologise for the rather late notice."

Oliver's hand went to his belly as the baby kicked, grunting in surprise.

Moira looked over to her son. "There's no need. Are you okay, Oliver?"

Slade looked over too.

"Fine, fine." The father to be assured, "Little one is just being abusive."

"It's kicking?" Moira exclaimed. "When did this start?"

"Yesterday when I told Slade." Oliver said, laughing uncomfortably. "I kind of forgot to say." He did have a lot on his mind at the time.

The blonde woman smiled wildly, a look that seemed down right weird in Moira's usual calm and collected manner. "This is amazing."

"What is?" Thea yawned as she walked into the room, still in her pyjamas.

"The baby kicking." Moira said to her daughter.

Now that woke Thea right up. Her eyes snapped open and she practically sprinted over to Oliver, placing her hands on his belly. "Really?!" she looked up to her brother.

Oliver nodded. "She's been doing that a lot this morning, especially if you talk to her."

Thea knelt down. "I can't wait to find out if you're really a girl." she said to the bump. "Ollie seems pretty convinced." she smiled, absolutely smitten and the baby was not even born yet. "Come on little one, you know you want to." she sang.

Slade's eyes looked over as he felt the presence of another. It was a woman, mid twenties, long brown hair and she looked rather familiar but Slade knew he had never saw her before. She was just leaning against the door frame watching the scene, so the Australian paid her no mind.

"I'm your aunty Thea. Come say hello."

"Typical, she's been kicking all morning." Oliver said.

"Maybe she's just a little worn-" Slade started.

"Oh wow." Thea smiled, her white teeth on show.

Oliver hummed in agreement and then in interest. "Will you talk to her?" he asked Slade. At the questionable look the older man gave him, he continued. "I want to test something."

Slade squatted down so he was level with the bump, looking up to Oliver one last time but still not daring to touch the bump out in public. "Hey there little one, your daddy has this theory but I'm not sure wh-"

"She kicked!" Thea giggled before pointing a finger at Slade, "Baby whisperer."

Slade grinned, turning back to his child. "Can't resist a Australian accent-"

"So cute." Thea cooed as she received yet another kick.

"Can you." Slade finished.

"Come feel." Thea waved her mother over, moving away so she could take her place.

Slade looked up at Oliver. "I'm pretty sure this means we spend far too much time together."

Oliver smiled.

"That's just..." Moira shook her head, tears threatening to pour. "I'm lost for words." She said with a brief laugh. She stood back up, spotting Laurel she brushed away the tears with the side of her fingers, hopefully not tainting her makeup. "Oh, Laurel. Do excuse me, I forgot you were here."

Laurel Lance? Slade stood and looked Oliver in the eyes. The blonde nodded. It did explain why she looked so familiar. She was Sara's sister.

"No, it's fine. I felt a little rude intruding." she said with a polite smile before turning to Oliver, "I just wanted to see how you were doing. I haven't seen you in a week, so..." Since you nearly lost the baby, were the missing words. "This is the father, I take it." She said, raising a hand to Slade.

Oliver blinked, not knowing what to say. Slade apparently did.

"Well, he was ten weeks pregnant when I met him. So I was a little suspicious." Slade said, pressing his lips together and shrugging his shoulders in a what-you-gonna-do gesture.

"Oh." Laurel looked away, her ears turning pink in embarrassment.

"He's my bodyguard. What make you think that?" Oliver asked.

"Well you just seemed really happy when the baby recognised his voice, so... Sorry. I should not have insinuated that." she said, tugging at her sleeves.

Oliver shook his head. "It's fine. I, hm..." he closed his eyes, took a breath and opened them, " _I want to tell them_." He said in Russian.

" _About me being the father?"_

Oliver nodded. " _I don't want to hide it. Do you?"_

Slade smiled, " _Not even in the slightest_."

Oliver nodded again, not wanting to give too much away. " _I'll get Tommy here and we can tell them all at once_."

" _Sounds like a plan_."

Oliver turned to the group. "When the only book you have for five years is 'How to; a guide to Russian', you tent to pick it up." he said, "And also, I did get word from the father and it's time I told you about him but I want to get Tommy here first. Tell you all at once."

"I'll call him." Laurel said.

"Thanks."

She nodded, leaving the room to do so.

"I'm sorry Ollie." Thea said to her brother, looking a little saddened and trying desperately not to look at Slade. "The timing could have been better."

Oliver gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You'll like him." he said.

* * *

Oliver sat at the dinning room table with his mother, sister, Tommy, Laurel and Slade, who sat at his side. The room felt tense. The blonde imagined that they expected bad news, after all, they thought that the baby was the cause of a one night stand in China. It did not sound like the kind of man who would travel across the world and live in Starling City.

"The father is not Chinese." He started, "He went to China to meet an old friend and we met. He was in the military and for those he cares for he'll do anything to keep them safe. Now he's going to settle down here in Starling and raise the baby with me."

"And you thrust him?" Moira asked.

"Completely. When I first said it was a one night stand, that was not true. I was just angry that he was gone and sad that I would have to do this alone but we talked it out. He did not know I was pregnant, else he would have never left me alone all this time and when he got here, he did so to be with me and not because of the baby." Oliver said. "Saying that, he really cares for the baby. He even went with me to have the first scan done."

"That was two days ago." Thea said.

"Why didn't you tell us he got here two days ago?" Tommy asked, knitting his brows in confusion.

"Actually, he's been here for a week." Oliver said. "You've all met him."

The group look at each other and at Oliver in confusion.

"Okay." Thea said. She bit her lip, nodding. "What does he look like?"

"Dark hair and eyes, naturally tanned skin and he has a apparently irresistible deep Australian accent."

"Apparently?" Slade said, "You are pregnant aren't you?"

Oliver smiled, shoulders shaking slightly with laughter. His smile grew as he felt Slade kiss his cheek.

"So, I was right then." Laurel said, not looking overly shocked.

"Hm... Mazel Tov." Tommy said, smiling.

"I agree." Thea said. "This is great."

"Sorry about the deception before." Slade said to Moira, "It made the most sense at the time."

"You'll look after him and my grandchild?"

"With my life."

"I'm not going to pay you."

"I know."

Moira paused before nodding. "Okay."

"Hey, so are the both of you going to be called daddy or one of you father or what?" Thea asked.

"Hadn't really thought about it." Oliver said honestly.

"How about; you're daddy and I'm Baba, like they say in China." like Shado called Yao Fei, "Seems fitting." Slade said.

Oliver smiled. "I like it." he said, before leaning forward and kissing Slade, resting a hand on his cheek.

* * *

Slade held his neck as thick red blood spilled from his jugular. He would not die or anything but the sudden loss of blood did make him dizzy. He watched the man sprint into the distance with the bloodied knife. "Bastard." He swore as he fell to his knees on the wet grass.

"Oh God." A woman gasped, running towards him. "Someone get help!" she yelled over her shoulder. She placed a comforting hand on Slade's shoulder.

"It's fine." he groaned, blinking hard to keep himself awake.


	9. A Matter of Gender

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you may have noticed I started writing this before Slade got the mirakuru but his face had been burned so I wrote that one of his eyes (on his right) was sensitive to light and he could not smile on one side. That will be (undated) explained further here.

Oliver was now eighteen weeks pregnant, meaning he had carried the baby for just over four months. His back hurt, his feet were sore and not being able to sleep on his belly was giving Ollie serious neck ache but Slade would work out the knots with a massage which was weird because he was usually more of a chiropractor than masseur. The family was getting used to Slade being there. Thea all but fell in love with him when they showed her the baby room.

His mother and Tommy were not overly trusting but they were civil. Laurel was neither here nor there and Lance was mostly not bothered but when Oliver did see the detective, the man always asked about the baby. A natural father. Slade and Lance had only met a few times, the first meeting consisted of the two eyeing each other before parting ways. Slade was not exactly one for playing polite with those he did not know or like but they seemed to put up with each other. Maybe it was the fact that Oliver could not hide in the shell of his former self like he had planned but Lance seemed to like him and those around him that little bit more everyday. Oliver only wished he could tell him about Sara but truth be told he was not sure where she was or if she was even still alive.

At eighteen weeks Oliver had blown up to a point where he had stopped going out altogether but he did not care. He did not give a single care in the world because today Thea, Slade and himself were going to the hospital to have a scan. The eightieth week scan was also know as the gender telling scan... Well, no maybe he did care, just a little

"You set?" Slade asked, resting his hand on the door frame.

"Yeah... Just thinking." Oliver said, running a hand through his hair. It had grow to the length it had been since they first met. He threw it back and it fell down into his eyes again. "I need a hair cut." he said, "And I need to work out but I get tired so easily." He sighed, which sounded more like a growl. "If I tried doing push ups at the moment I would roll around like I was on a yoga ball."

"You're not that big." Slade said, walking up behind him.

"I will be."

Slade wrapped his arms around Ollie, resting his hands on the bump, his chin on the blonde's shoulder. "What's really bothering you?"

"I don't want to have to sneak into hospital, looking like some fat guy every where I go." He said, "I miss being outside."

"Why don't you just tell the public?"

"Because then people will know." he pointed a finger at the Aussie. "And don't make that face. I just mean that after nine months of being pregnant, I would have been back for nine months. People will think this baby was the make of a one night stand or something. No where near what we had and still have."

"Who gives a..." Slade looked down at the bump before waving a hand to say 'you know'. "We'll be together with our baby."

Oliver lent into Slade, eyelids falling shut.

"If you want we could just show them." Slade said, "Today, after the scan; when we're high on the fact we know his or her gender. We'll just walk out of there like any normal couple expecting."

"You think?"

"Why not."

Oliver kissed Slade's cheek.

The Aussie smiled.

* * *

"So excited." Thea grinned wildly. "Soon we'll know."

"Yeah." Oliver smiled from where he lay on the bed, ultrasound tool running over his belly.

"Imagine if it was twins." Thea gasped.

"Don't say that." Oliver whined, "I mean it would be okay I guess but... Ahh."

Slade chuckled.

"I assure you," Doctor Clack said, "We have long passed the point of discovering that."

Oliver nodded.

"Would you have another?" Thea asked.

"Thea." Oliver groaned.

"I'm just saying."

"Maybe later." Slade said.

"Hey, this bun is still in the oven. Don't you go thinking about next one." Oliver warned.

"Would you like another?"

"Um... I don't know." Oliver said, "Maybe." adding, "I think we should stick with the one for now."

"If I may cut in?" The doctor asked.

"You know the gender?" Slade asked.

The doctor nodded. "I take it you would all like to know."

"Yes."

"Yeah."

"Defiantly."

The doctor smiled. "It's a health baby girl."

Oliver smiled like a mad man, his head falling back onto the bed.

"Baby whisperer and baby physic, I swear." Thea commented.

"Baby whisperer?" The doctor asked, passing Slade a few paper towels to remove the gel.

"I forgot to tell you about that." Oliver said, "When the baby first starting kicking, she only did it to Slade's voice." he said, feeling unbelievably happy that when he said she that he was right. "She does it a lot more now, but mostly when Slade talks to her."

"Ah." doctor Clack smiled. "Babies take in the sounds around them, especially things like accents. It is wildly believed that in later life the accents we hear in the womb make us feel more comfortable. The likely reason the baby is taking so much notice is because the accent is spoken more to the baby and it sticks out more than any others she would have heard."

"Wow." Thea said.

"Okay." Oliver said, turning to Slade. "Let's do this."

Slade smiled.

"Do what?" Thea asked.

"Walk out of here." Oliver said.

"Isn't that what we normally do?"

"From the front door." Slade added.

Thea grinned, "Today is just full of surprises."

* * *

Thea ran -iPad in hand- into the kitchen were Oliver sat on a stool, drinking a cup of tea Slade had made him while said man rubbed his shoulder with his large warm hands.

"Guys, I hate to interrupt but you have to see this." She said, placing the iPad on the breakfast bar, propping it up on to it's stand. She took a seat on the stool next to her brother and tapped play on the video.

"Something no one in Starling would have ever expected." the blonde woman on the screen said. A picture of Slade, Oliver and Thea walking down the street appeared next to her. "I jogger took this picture no more than an hour ago. As you can see Oliver and Thea Queen are walking down the street with this mystery man. Nothing out the ordinary right? Wrong." The next photo took over the screen, the reporter speaking over it. "As you can quite clearly see Oliver Queen is pregnant. It is still unclear if the mystery man is the father or not but there is no denying what we see here today."

"That was quick." Slade said.

"That's Starling for you." Oliver shrugged.

* * *

The day had gone so well. Finding the gender, coming out, Thea tweeting, twittering or whatever it was called, that Slade was indeed the father, ending the night with hot sex and then dinner with Oliver's family. It was a hell of a day.

Slade was walking home that night from his local shop with a few bits and bobs he needed, still high on what a great day it had been. The man who ran the shop, a Indian man in his early forties gave the new father his best wishes, along with a number one dad mug. Slade liked him, great guy.

The Aussie took a cut through the park; it was the quickest path, he liked nature and it would reduce the chance of him being spotted. According to Moira it would not be long until his apartment was found. Her voice had been cool but her eyes were full of worry, constantly looking over to Oliver. He could tell that when she got home she had been angry, exhausted but for the live of him he could not tell why.

Maybe there was a large hatred of male pregnancies he was unaware of. Either way Oliver could protect himself against some group of thugs even in his state but it still had the dark eyed man worrying. He'd have to watch over Oliver more.

Slade first noticed something was off before he was even out the park. He was not far to the opening back into the city streets, when he heard it. Along his left side was a row of trees, taking up about five or so feet between himself and the sidewalk. Far to dense to look through but he could hear someone walking which would have been impossible had it not been for his training and the mirakuru that heightened his senses.

Slade paused, ruffling the bags in his hands to make his stopping know. The person stopped. He was being followed.

Slade continued to walk, jerking the bags as he went. The person followed. Slade wanted to smirk because this was going to be fun but this was no Afghanistan, China, Africa, even England. He was not undercover, he was not letting himself accidently wonder too close and get caught, this was not planned. No one should know who he was, the things he had done. It could be a simple mugging but Slade had a gut feeling that this was not the case.

As he walked he slowly lowered the bags so he could place them on the floor without being heard, the loud tapping of his still moving boots would keep the person following. No sounds of hesitation, the person either did not hear him or was trained and if by chance they were then they knew Slade was waiting for them

Slade reached the end and turned to meet his stalker. He was male, about six foot, wearing all black with a black cap on with a balaclava, a brown knife holster was the only colourful thing he was wearing. Slade's mirakuru affected keen eye sight could make out the hazel eyes as if they illuminated the dark around them.

There was a momentary pause as the man released Slade had known he was coming but it lasted barely a second. The man ran forward and went to drop to the ground to take Slade's legs out from under him but the Aussie was quicker. Sending as sharp kick to the man's face before he could slide his leg out. Slade went for him but the man shot a arm out and Slade felt the dart in the side of his neck, sending a wave of dizziness through out him but it was only a wave nothing more. It should have made him fall to the ground unconscious.

Credit where credit was due, the man did not spend time wondering how that was possible. He pulled the knife from his belt and rushed forward, slitting Slade's throat while the Aussie was trying to regain himself.

Slade clamped one hand around his neck while the other pulled out the dart, slipping it into his pocket. "Fucker." He growled, voice sounding raw.

"The fuck?" The man jumped away from him. "How can you..." he turned and ran.

Slade held his neck as thick red blood spilled from his jugular. He would not die or anything but the sudden loss of blood did make him dizzy. He watched the man sprint into the distance with the bloodied knife. "Bastard." He swore as he fell to his knees on the wet grass.

"Oh God." A woman gasped, running towards him. "Someone get help!" she yelled over her shoulder. She placed a comforting hand on Slade's shoulder.

"It's fine." he groaned, blinking hard to keep himself awake.

A group of three men appeared. "What happen?" One asked, pulling out his phone, while the other two stared on in amazement.

"Thanks." Slade said as the woman took off her scarf and passed it to him. Slade folded it and placed it over the still gushing wound. Most of the time wounds stopped bleeding in seconds, entire stab wounds could be healed completely within half an hour.

When the mirakuru had first hit him it had healed him near completely, he was blind in one eye and one side of his face was paralysed due to the blast but his scars had healed. When they went to stay with ASIS they found that the nerves in his face were in fact healing but just a hell of a lot slower but very fast and impossible by human comparison. Skin healed fast, sometimes no longer than a minute, bones were slower, organs even slower, nerves the slowest of all. He could now see, move his eyebrow, he could even talk without people noticing the lack of movement on one side but the sensitivity in his right eye and he's inability to smile on that side would take a little longer. The corner of his mouth had only in the last month started to twitch slightly when he smiled.

He kept his head forward to stop the bleeding, blood vessels were just that bit quicker than bones but they had found that adrenalin actually make the mirakuru work almost instantly.

"There's so much blood." one of the men gasped.

"You want to do something useful?" Slade asked the man eyeing the blood and running a hand through his hair. Slade pointed down the path, "Go get my shopping. It had some kitchen roll in there. Open it. The guy left some of his blood behind." the man did not move. "Go!"

The man stuttered before he followed the order.

Slade pulled the scarf away from his neck slightly and felt no more shooting blood pounding against his hand. "Good." He said placing it back and slipped the phone from his pocket and began to text Anatoli Knyazev with his one hand. This would need to be cleaned up, there was far too much blood on the floor to match the wound he would have in the next hour.

The man came back with the bags and took out a roll.

"Good." Slade said gasping slightly. He pointed over to the few blood drops on the floor. "Dab it on that." Slade rolled his eyes as the man did so with the entire roll.

"The police will be here soon." The man on the phone said. Thankfully the Bratva were only a block away.

"Alright." Slade forced himself up, "We gotta go."

"We can't leave." The third man said, who until now had done nothing but stand there. "It's a crime scene and you're injured."

"Oh, Sherlock Holmes." Slade glared at him, deadly serious. "That man was a trained killer and if we don't get somewhere public in the next minute or two he will be back with friends who will kill all of us." he walked over to the man on the phone with the police and took it from him. "We'll be at the convenience store up the road." he said before flipping the phone shut. A convenience store would likely have a gun hidden somewhere, a great place for a person 'on the run' to hide until the police showed up.

Slade gave the man his phone back. He then went over to his shopping and pulled out the other kitchen roll. His hand brushed past the mug, leaving a smudge of blood on it. He paused, eyeing the cup before taking the roll from the bag and placing it against his wound, dropping the blood soaked scarf on the floor. This was his life. "And the day started so promising." he said.

He turned to the man with the roll, "You keep a hold of that, it's evidence." and then he turned to the man who had the phone. "You grab my shopping." He started walking. "Come on, let's go."

The group were stunned but followed. The woman moved her hand to his lower back, making sure he did not fall and Slade let her.

By the time the police got here, all the blood would be gone.


	10. A Matter of Names

Detective Lance walked over to the ambulance where Slade sat with a EMT fussing over his neck which had a large cut along his throat, it did not look deep, the man was lucky, pale and pissed off but lucky. He was shirtless as his shirt and coat had been taken as evidence and his neck and collarbone were stained pink from the blood. The vehicle was pointed away from the line holding back the many reporters that were hanging around. There were more than usual for a crime scene this late at night but knowing them, they likely knew who had been hurt by now.

"I've been shot, stabbed and batted around by explosions. I can take a cottonwool covered with alcohol." Slade said, sounding unbelievably board. "If I'm not stitched up in the next ten minutes, I will do it myself."

"Done that before, have you?" Lance asked, pulling out his note pad and pen.

Slade's vision moved up to Lance, not looking remotely surprised by the man's presence. "It's a bit of a pain when you have to use a mirror."

"What happened?"

"I was on my way home from doing some shopping. Guy was following me as I was coming out the park. He threw a dart at me but it came out the other side or something because it had no affect. I kicked him in the head and got a bit of blood out of him. Both the dart and blood, I gave you. He cut my throat. People came to help but I had a feeling this guy was trained," he sighed, "which would explain the dart. I was worried for their safety so I moved us to this store."

"That it?"

"Yep." Slade replied, popping the 'p'.

"I'm going to start the stitching now, I recommend you take a sedative." the EMT told Slade.

Slade gave him a deadpan look. Mirakuru mean that drugs and alcohol were removed from the body rather quickly. Years of practice had shown Slade that by calming himself or getting stressed he could change the speed at which drugs were metabolised, a neat trick to make alcohol last or sedative darts leave quickly. "I'll be fine."

The EMT went to say something but then dropped the matter.

"You're going to regret that." Lance said.

"I doubt it." Slade said.

Lance watched as the EMT approached Slade's neck with the needle, taking a breath before sliding the metal in. Slade only blinked. The EMT then pierced the other piece of skin before pulling the two bits together.

"Just think of me as a cadaver." Slade said.

"Jesus." Lance chuckled.

"I wouldn't go that far." Slade said.

"Detective Lance." A officer called, "You're going to want to have a look at this."

* * *

Ten minuets later, Lance arrived back at the ambulance to see the EMT almost done bandaging up Slade's neck.

"The crime scene is gone." Lance said, "No blood on the floor, or the bloodied scarf. Nothing."

"So instead of bringing friends with guns, they brought friends with mops?" Slade raised a brow.

"But why?"

"Well he did leave blood behind. Could not really tell whose was whose." Slade said.

Lance hummed in thought. He looked over to the line of people and waved someone over, the cameras flashed wildly. Slade knew it was a group from the sounds, he felt himself calm as he heard that one voice.

"Slade." Oliver said as he saw the man, running forward and wrapping his arms around the Australian's body.

"Hey." Slade said softly, wrapping his arms around his partner. Oliver still had rather unstable mood swings from the large amounts of hormones whizzing around his body. "I'm alright."

Oliver held him tightly.

The rest of the group included Moira, Thea, Walter and Tommy.

"Glade to see you're okay." Thea said, hand over her heart. She could not help looking at all the marks on Slade's chest and shoulders; a multitude of large cuts over his back and abs, patches of burn all along his right rise and a few circular pink scars. Bullet wounds?

There was a pause, maybe it was the shock or maybe they were waiting for Oliver, either way Tommy decided to help.

"So... Were you shaving and decided a jog was a wise idea?"

Over hisses of "Tommy." from Thea, Slade said. "It sounded like a good idea at the time, yes."

"Who ever did this," Oliver growled pulling back, "I'm going to find them and pull their ass out through their throat."

Slade smiled. "Yeah. I know." he kissed the blonde. "Let's get out of here." Slade said as they parted. He peeked over Ollie's shoulder to see Lance. "You done with me?"

Lance nodded, little stunned by Oliver's words, as were his family. "For now, yes."

"I would like you to stay with us for the time being." Moira said, eyes on her son. She had never seen him like this. "It would put our minds at ease."

Slade stood, wrapped an arm around Oliver's waist. "Thank you." he sat his chin on Oliver's head when the pregnant blonde leaned into him.

* * *

"I cut his throat. Blood came pouring out, went everywhere." The hazel eyed man said, wanting to zigzag around to relieve stress, had there been room in the phone box. "The guy wasn't human. There's no way. I came back and the guy was almost completely heal and someone had cleaned up all the blood like it never happened." he paused to listen to his boss. "Yeah. I'll drop it off." he heard the phone hung up. "Christ." He slammed to phone down, "Send me after some freakin' super human."

* * *

"I can't believe this actually happened." Thea said, "I mean, why?"

"That's what I want to know." Slade said. He was sitting on the sofa, facing along it with one leg dangling down. Oliver lay out in font of him, rest his back on the older man's chest that was now covered by a white polo shirt Oliver let him borrow, which was stretched tight across his wide chest and large biceps.

"Do you have any enemies?" Walter asked.

"No." Slade said. Poking Oliver in the rib when his shoulders shook.

"There has to be someone." Moira said.

"That's what I'm wondering about." Slade said, looking over to the blonde woman with a look that said 'You know something'. "There has to be a reason. I was targeted."

Moira blinked but then crossed her arms. "None that I can think of."

"It could have just been a mugging." Thea said.

"By someone who knows how to throw a dart? Unlikely."

"You got darted?" Oliver leant his head back so he could see the man.

"I moved, it came out the other side. The fact the he still knew how to use it is questionable." Slade said, "I collected the guy's blood, so we should find out who he was by tomorrow."

"Why did you collect it?" Tommy asked from where he sat.

"I had a feeling that he would come back so we left and just in case he cleaned up, which he did, I took evidence."

"Tonight has just been too weird." Thea sighed, dropping down next to Tommy.

"Indeed." Moira said, "The police will stay here tonight and tomorrow I'll assign you two a bodyguard."

Slade and Oliver both gave her a look of 'You're joking, right?'

"I will not listen to any arguments." Moira said. She held a hand to Slade, "You're injured." and then to Oliver. "And you're pregnant."

"Yay." Oliver groaned, "A babysitter."

"I think getting knifed says that you need it." Thea said.

Slade opened his mouth but then closed it and nodded. "You may have a point." he sighed. He smiled as Oliver yawned and rubbed at his eyes. " _Great acting there_." He said in Russian.

Oliver elbowed him, smirking when the man grunted dramatically. "Right. We're off to bed." Oliver said, leaching into another yawn, this one real. He grabbed hold of Slade's hand as he stood. The older man followed, moving slowly and shaking slightly.

"After tonight?" Thea asked.

"Blood loss makes me sleepy." Slade explained.

Oliver could not help but snort at that as he lead the Aussie out the room.

"Ollie has... Interesting tastes in men." Tommy said.

"Agreed." Thea shook her head with a smile. She'd have to text Roy about this.

* * *

"And that's the last of it." Oliver said, pulling the last piece of thread from Slade's neck. The stitching would only get in the way, by morning there would be nothing there anymore. Ollie stepped over to the sink and dropped in the bloodied scissors and forceps. "You okay?" he asked, glancing back to his other half.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Slade said. He was sitting on the toilet seat, holding a cloth to his neck. He looked pale for a normal white guy, let alone a naturedly tanned man with a blood full of mirakuru.

"Okay." Oliver said. He washed the tools with warm water, watching the blood and used stitching wash down the drain. Then he rinsed the metal tools with alcohol. Ollie turned back to Slade, who had his eyes closed, resting his head against the tiled wall, still holding the cloth in place. His breathing was slow but not as much had he been asleep and he opened his tired dark brown eyes when he heard Oliver seize movement.

Slade gave the blonde a weak smile, removing the cloth from his neck, the wound had stopped bleeding. He grabbed the bandages from Oliver's rather advanced first air kit and pulled a fresh bandage around his neck.

Oliver left the medical equipment in the sink, wiping his hand on the bathroom towel before walking over and grabbing the roll from the Australian. Slade did not complain as Ollie wrapped his neck. "What happened?"

Slade hummed in question, eyelashes flickering closed.

"It's not like you to get this hurt." Oliver said, "The dart did get you, didn't it?"

"Yeah." Slade said, voice low. "I was a little out of it for a seconds but it was enough. I think the fact that I was still standing freaked him out."

"So he knows then?"

"He should know that I am not exactly a normal bloke." Slade said, "but he had no idea beforehand, I could tell as much."

"Did you know him?"

"No. Hazel eyes, white, male, about six foot."

"Doesn't sound familiar." Oliver shrugged. He tied off the bandages. "Hold the roll for a sec." Slade lifted his arm and Ollie placed the roll in his hand. The blonde then went over to the sink, grabbing the scissors and drying them on the towel before cutting the roll lose and taking it from the man. He placed the roll and tools back into the wooden box, placing the box back in the space he had removed the floorboard from, where the towel stand would be placed back over it after. He covered it with the floorboard and moved the towel stand back.

"Come on." Oliver said, sliding an arm around Slade's waist. "Let's get you to bed."

"Right." Slade grunted as he stood and walked with Oliver to the bedroom, allowing the man to sit him down. He removed his own clothes. He was exhausted, quite literally drained but not a child. He removed his jeans and the small fitting polo shirt Oliver had leant him, dumping them on the floor where usually he would fold the clothing and place it on the set of draws.

Oliver paid it no thought. He stripped off his own clothing, throwing it into the laundry basket before slipping up the covers.

Slade got under as well, smiling when Oliver rolled over and pressed his back into the older man's front. Slade wrapped an arm around the blonde, arm curling the bump while his hand rested on it.

Oliver smiled. "Have you thought of any names?"

"Yes but they're all in the maybe pile." Slade said, nuzzling into Ollie's neck, who arched his back and neck at the feeling of the man's tickling stubble.

"Like?"

"Charlotte."

"Won't suit her when she'll older."

"Sophie."

Oliver made a displeased sound.

"Doris."

"Please tell me you're joking?"

Slade chuckled.

"The names are okay I guess but they're just not... Right." Oliver said, "Plus..."

"Hm?"

"Well." Oliver sighed, "What about her last name?"

"Something Queen Wilson. I imagine." Slade rubbed his thumb along the bump. Oliver's shoulders shook with a laugh. The Aussie hummed in interest.

"Maybe just Wilson."

"What's wrong with your last name?"

"It was the last name of my father, who would have never forgiven me for dating a man, let alone getting pregnant. My mother by a marriage she is no longer in, who is clearly hiding something." Oliver said, "She knows something about why you were attacked, I know it. She only keeps the last name for the purpose of running my father's company, anyway."

Slade kissed Ollie's shoulder and slotted his body further against the younger man's.

"And Thea..." Oliver's shoulders shook again, he tried his best to will away the sadness heighten by his hormones. "She should not even have the name."

That caught Slade by surprise. "What do you mean?"

Oliver smiled, it was wobbly and the weak laugh further highlighted how sad he felt. "My father, mother and I. Blonde hair, green eyes. My sister, born at a time my parents had long since stopped cared for each other, both having affairs. Brown hair, blue eyes. The only thing that links mom, Thea and I, is our smile. Nothing from dad." Oliver wiped his eyes, pleased to find that the wetness was minimal. "I love Thea. I want to believe that my mom is a good person and respect my father but our baby shouldn't have to carry the last name just because I feel bad."

Slade moved his hand up, finger tips tilting Oliver's chin up so their eyes met. He did not say word, just smiled, lend down and lay a kiss on the pink lips. "She will be loved." Slade said, "By myself, you, Thea. We will all love her and raise her to become whatever she wants to be. We're going to teach her Mandarin," his smile grew as Oliver smiled. "so we can have our own private language. Teach her to cook, to ride a bike and after we teach her to fight she'll kick everyone's arse."

Oliver laughed, "You could fix her dresses with your sewing skills. Or make them using a sewing machine."

Slade clamped a hand over Ollie's mouth with a mock frown, the corners of his lips pulling up when the blonde continued to laugh against his hand. He should have never told him about that. He pulled his hand. "You could teach her how to ride horses or how to boss maids around."

"Oh, ha ha ha." Oliver said, putting on a unbelievably posh accent.

Slade pecking Ollie's cheek before kissing his mouth once more. Oliver ran his hand through Slade's wiry hair, gripping it sharply just the way the man liked. The two practically melted into each other in blissful relaxation. Parting, Slade moved his head back to the pillow, laying a kiss on Oliver's scalp after he moved his head back.

"I love you." Slade said against the blonde locks.

Oliver smiled. "I love you too." He fell asleep to the sound of Slade's breath and the feel of his hand stroking his belly, right where their baby lie.

* * *

"It's incredible." The scientist said. She was in her early forties with long brown hair held back in a bun, freckles scattered across her cheeks. "The white blood cells are mutated. They're still alive, even now. Really to fight off anything." She pulled back from the microscope, turning to her boss. "And I tested the blood before. The drug was completely gone, no sign that it had ever exited. It's amazing."

"I told you. He's superhuman." the hazel eyed man told his boss.

The man walked over to the lab desk. "Can it be extracted?"

"Extracted?" The hazel eyed man exclaimed, "Why?"

"Wouldn't you want to be super human?"

The hazel eyed man smirked.

"I believe so," The lab tech said, "Mr Merlyn."


	11. A Matter of New and Old Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to make this quick, have to go to work. I'll read over it when I get back from work.  
> :3
> 
> So part two will be out soon.

Quentin Lance sighed as he saw the body lying next to the dumpster, on top of a pile of rubbish bags. Male, early twenties, short light brown hair, of American descent as far as Lance could tell, with thick lines of blood running from his eyes. "Same as before."

"Seems like it." The officer beside Lance said. "No damage to the eyes or head as far as we can tell and a puncher mark in the neck."

"And when we get him to the coroner, he'll tell us that he died of cardiac arrest and there was a mystery drug in his system that has no link to his death or anything but it's still there." Quentin shook his head. "The hell is going on?" he mumbled.

"What do you think the drug does?" the officer asked.

"No idea." Lance sighed heavily. "It not like anything we've seen or can even find out about. It does not seem to knock a person out or kill, it just is what it is." Lance looked away from the body, "Either way someone is killing these people. The victims are all of different race, religion, economic class, sexual orientation and genders. There is no link of what kills them, the drug or the victims themselves." he looked out to the starless night sky. "What's the reason?" he asked himself but found not even the slightest hint of an answer.

* * *

"Lost something?" Oliver asked from behind his magazine as a rather irritated John Diggle walked into the living room. Ollie instinctively rested a hand on his large belly, now swollen with child for the past eight months.

"Your other half jumped out of the car while it was moving." Diggle shook his head, "In my experience people tend not to run away from their bodyguard."

"If I wasn't so pregnant I'd be going the same thing." Oliver said, typing a text, phone hidden inside the magazine while looking at Diggle, a neat trick he had leant from an old enemy turned friend. "He's not used to being watched all the time and neither am I."

"Jumping out a moving car without a person even noticing." Diggle pondered, crossing his arms. "Interesting thing to lean in the military."

Oliver smirked, wanting to say 'nice try' but instead shrugged. "What would I know? I've been on an Island for five years."

Diggle hummed in a sarcastic agreement.

"If you must know. Slade is meeting an old friend who is coming to Starling." Oliver said.

"I could have just gone with him." Diggle said.

"It's better that you didn't." Oliver said, glancing down at Slade's reply and holding back the smile.

"You have a whole other life going on, don't you?"

"It keeps things interesting." Oliver said simply. "He won't be back for the rest of the day but I need to go out if you'd like to go with me?"

"Meeting more old friends?"

Oliver laughed, "Your getting the hang of it Dig."

* * *

Slade stood with his hands in his coat pockets, looking up at the private plane. The door opened and he smiled at the man who walked from it. "It's good to see you again Knyazev."

"Slade Wilson." Anatoli said, his voice thick with his Russian accent. He stepped down the plane, accepting Slade's hand when it was offered. "How is Oliver?"

"Happy."

Anatoli smiled and wrapped a arm around Slade's shoulders, pulling the man in for a hug. "That's good." He laughed and pulled away. "After the life he's lived, he deserves a family."

Slade nodded. He stepped over to the plane and grabbed the suit cases that the staff had placed while they had been talking.

"Mirakuru. A marvellous thing." Anatoli started to walk to the car.

"It has it's drawbacks." Slade said, stepping over to the boot.

"Yes. I remember Wade." Anatoli said, "Speaking of which. The baby..."

"No idea if she has it." Slade said, opening the boot and placing the cases inside. "The only way to test her would be to take her blood and doing so while Oliver is pregnant could cause him to abort."

Anatoli nodded. "Regardless, no one knows of it's existence." he said, "And with the family she has, no one stands a chance." he smiled.

Slade nodded and slammed the boot. He was not surprised when he saw the crack appear on the back window.

* * *

"My sister in-law's dinar?" Diggle said as they stepped inside. "Why here?"

"It's familiar." He said, taking a seat at a box, Diggle following and sitting opposite him.

Shado stepped over to the table, notepad in hand. "Good morning gentlemen."

Oliver smiled at her, wanting so badly to laugh and by the twitch in her eyebrow, she could tell. "Are you new?"

"Yes." She nodded. She was wearing the uniform and her long dark hair was put back in a plait. "Just started this week."

"Ah." Oliver nodded. "Two teas, one with milk and one without."

Shado nodded, writing the order down before turning to Diggle. "What would you like sir?"

"Coffee please."

Shado smiled. "Your orders will be out soon." she said, walking away.

* * *

Walter looked over to the highlighted photo copied documents as he walked along his office, notes along the side of the Chinese writing to translate what it said. "You are a lifesaver Miser Yao."

"Why thank you sir." Yao Fei said, eyes on the secretary camera. It had switched off before his arrival, so it was stuck on the image of Walter reading his computer screen. Fei plugged the clip into the hard drive from behind his back.

Walter flipped through the pages, smiling when he saw the translated Russian documents as wells. "Russian too. You are a very important asset to this company Yao."

"Again, thank you sir." At the vibration in his pocket, he reached over a took the chip. "Is that all sir?"

"For now yes." Walter glanced up to the Chinese man, "Thank you."

Yao Fei nodded, taking his leave.

Once out of the office Yao Fei sent a text of confirmation to Oliver as he walked away. Knowing that once Walter was back to his desk and was looking at his screen, the camera would be put back on.

* * *

Oliver took his phone from his pocket and looked at the message. Shado saw this and quickly placed the items on the tray, taking the orders over.

"That was just a friend." Oliver said, holding up his phone. Typing back a reply he spoke, "Picking up some shopping."

Shado smiled, placing down their orders, before walking away.

"Being pregnant has really made my life domestic." Oliver said.

* * *

Lance looked down at the body on the cold autopsy table. "Same drug and cause of death?" he asked the coroner.

The coroner nodded. "Exact same. I have no explanation for you Sargent."

"This just doesn't make any sense." Quentin shook his head. "They have nothing in common."

"The drug could be being tested on these people."

Lance nodded. "The question is; is death the result they wanted?"

* * *

As the door chimed Oliver looked up and smiled. He lifted a hand in a wave, before shifting around the table so the man could sit.

"Sorry I was late."

"You call this late?" Oliver asked, "You really are anal."

"John Diggle." Diggle offered his hand to the man.

He took it. "Edward Fyers." he said, placing his laptop on the table. "Hope you don't mind. Didn't want to leave it in the car."

Diggle moved to get up with his coffee. "I take it you two have some things to discus."

Oliver nodded. "You're learning Dig."

Diggle smirked and left the table, moving to the counter to talk with Carly.

"Cameras back on?" Oliver asked.

"Why do you think I was late." Fyers placed his hand on his cup. "Lukewarm but okay." he said. Taking a sip of the tea, he grimaced and placed the cup back down. "Never mind."

"Shado made it." Oliver said, motioning his head to the women who at this moment was taking orders from a table.

"She never did like me."

"You imprisoned us on an Island and kidnapped her father." Oliver pointed out.

"Are you still sore about that?"

Oliver laughed, "Just a bit. I only started to like you after our time on Ivo's boat with Anatoli." It had been difficult being on that boat, thinking that Slade, Yao Fei and Shado were dead, possibly even seeing Slade burn to death. It was just him and Fyers talking each other -along with Anatoli- through removing the bullets and patching up their bodies.

Looking back Oliver never though he could have trusted Fyers. With his men dead, they kept Fyers alive, the plan being to hand him to ASIS but after months of living with him the group got used to the man. He was restored in their eyes when he injected Slade with the mirakuru when Oliver couldn't and stood in front of Oliver when Ivo held out his gun, had Slade not got there in time the man would have died. When they got out of there, faced ASIS, no one said anything about Fyers' past. He had been on the boat. That was that.


	12. A Matter of Time Gone By

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rolly is nickname for rolled up tobacco or Marijuana.
> 
> Oh and in case you were wondering why it was extinguish, marijuana is made by hand, rolled up, not brought. Therefore like rolled up cigarettes it does not contain martials that will allow it to stay burning. Tobacco however is easier to burn which is why rolled up cigarettes stay burning.
> 
> Which is why if you ever see weed on TV, they keep having to re-light it. It will simply stopped burning several timings in a sitting.

_Four months ago_

"How's the neck?" Thea asked, plopping herself down on the dinning room chair with a plate of toast.

"Fine." Slade's neck was bandaged to keep the healing appeal even if by this morning he was in tip top same again, his blood pressure was still on the low side and his skin was cool -for him- to the touch but by late afternoon he would back to his old self entirety. His blood can fix pretty much anything; organs, blood vessels and bones in less than a day, discluding mutable -what should have been- killing wounds which would take longer. Blood had to be remade however and it would take a good several hours after the wounds had healed till his blood was back at it's peek, then a few days later his skin would be hot to the touch again. Trying to burn off energy once more.

"Hey." Oliver smiled brightly as he stepped into the room. His hands hidden behind his back. "Guess what I found?"

"Um?" Slade looked up from his coffee. He sounded a little grumpy... Okay Slade was often on the grumpy side of things but at this moment you could not blame him. His body's emergence healing and then more healing and more healing, followed by regenerating blood, had made Slade both mentally and physical exhausted. At least for today he would not have to play the part of miserable from being injured.

Oliver pulled Slade's old worn keffiyeh from behind his back, walking over and throwing it over Slade's head, wrapping it around his neck gently.

"You kept it." Slade said, running his fingers along the soft material.

"I figured you'd want it back."

"Wait." Thea held a hand in the air. She pointed at her brother. "You kept his scarf. Ollie when did you become so cute?"

"It's a keffiyeh." Oliver said, looking sheepish.

Slade smirked. Such a fighter; in archery, hand to hand, knifes, guns -Thanks to Anatoli on those long days sailing to China- and anything he put his mind to really and yet he was in many ways still that kid who had washed up on the pebbled beach. Slade had never met Oliver as he had been in Starling, from the moment of his father's death Oliver had changed but that had him emotionally stronger.

* * *

_Present_

"How is Anatoli?" Fyers asked.

"Chilling out in Russia as far as he's told me." Ollie said, "I want to thank you for coming by the way."

Fyers shrugged. "Happy to help. I hope you don't mind if I stick around until after the baby's born to meet-" he coughed into his hand. "Sorry. Met them before I go."

Oliver noticed the flicker of something across Fyers face before he covered it with a cough but said nothing about the matter. "Yeah sure. It's been great having Yao Fei and Shado around for the past month but I was really looking forward to seeing you and Anatoli again."

Fyers nodded. "You really think your mother is hiding something about the Queen's gambit?"

"You said yourself that, that night your men saw an explosion." Oliver said, "Small but no lightening bolt." he quoted.

"I know but I can't be sure." Fyers tapped his laptop. "Yao Fei has sent me all the information from the various locations in the company, if they is anything to find I will find it."

"Thank you."

Fyers waved the matter away with his hand. "No need."

"Dinner tonight at mine?" Oliver suggested.

"Who will be there?"

"Myself, my mother, sister, step-father, Slade and Anatoli." Oliver said, stroking a hand over his belly. "Little one why are you so violent?"

"It was made by you and Slade. I'm not exactly surprised."

Oliver grinned. "It's a girl by the way."

Fyers smiled. "A girl. How sweet. And yes, I would love to attend."

Oliver squinted his eyes. Fyers already knew. That was interesting.

* * *

_Three months ago_

Oliver sat with his legs crossed on the grass, hands gently stroking his belly, eyes closed. Slade sat behind him, legs on each side of the blonde, his hands cupping the under neither of the growing baby bump.

"And breath." Slade said in Oliver's ear, voice low.

Oliver blow out the breath he was holding with a pleased sigh. After which he smirked. "Still think this is stupid don't you?"

Slade hummed in agreement against Oliver neck, making the younger man shiver. "This was always more of your and Yao Fei's thing."

Oliver sniggered.

Slade moved a hand to Oliver's knee, sliding it up the inside of the man's thigh. "This is more my kind of thing." his massaged his palm over Ollie's package.

Oliver moaned. "Slade." His head fell back onto Slade's shoulder, he made an opened mouthed soft gasp as the Aussie ran his lips and bearded chin up his neck.

Slade slipped a hand down the paternity pants and boxers, and grabbed hold of the man, jerking Ollie's semi hardness with a good grip. Smirking against Oliver's light skin as he felt the younger man start to harden further.

Ollie grabbed hold of Slade's wrist, pausing the man in his movements.

"Hm?" Slade turned his head to look down at the blonde.

Oliver opened his bright blue eyes, looking up into the deep brown orbs. "Bedroom?"

Slade nodded. "Bedroom." He removed his hand, pushing Oliver's legs together and sliding his arm under Oliver knees, his other arm another arm around his back, he stood and lifted the blonde up bridal style.

Oliver snickered, his face buried into Slade's shirt as the Australian ran into the house and up the stairs.

* * *

_Present_

Diggle, Oliver and Fyers had just stepped through the door when Anatoli and Slade appeared from the living room.

"Oliver!" Anatoli gapped Oliver's face and kissed each of his cheeks.

Oliver smiled, laughing at Russian's affectionate greeting.

Anatoli placed his hands on each side of Oliver's bump. "You've gotten big my friend." He grinned, looking up to Oliver. "How is she?"

"Date is set for just two weeks away."

"To birth?" Fyers interjected with a stunned expression.

"C-section." Oliver said, "Has to be done at least a week before the due date."

"Not long then." Anatoli said. He noticed Diggle standing rather awkwardly with the group, looking not quite sure if he should stay or go. "Is that a friend of yours?"

"He's our bodyguard. After that whole Slade being attacked thing." Oliver shrugged.

"Thing?" Thea said, walking into the front room. "Oh look more friends." She smiled, holding out her hand to Fyers. "Thea, Ollie's sister."

"Edward Fyers. A pleasure to met you." Fyers said, shaking her hand.

"English?" Thea asked.

"Yes. Bristol. I'm no stranger to living in a city. Although my home was no where near this big." Fyers said.

"Wow Ollie." Thea turned to her brother. "All your friends are so..."

"Foreign?"

"Multicultural."

Oliver's shoulders shook lightly with a laugh. He looked over to Slade who watched the scene with an amused expression.

"Well," Anatoli said stepping over to Diggle. "you are at this moment my third favourite American."

"That's saying something." Slade commented.

"Not big on Americans?" Diggle asked, shaking the man's offered hand.

"No." Anatoli said simply. "Only Oliver and those surrounding him."

"I'm just that amazing." Oliver said.

"How long were you in China exactly?" Thea asked, looking at her brother with a raised brow.

"Five years."

" **In** China." Thea said, "Not on the Island."

"A while." Oliver said, "I'll tell you and mom at dinner, it's kind of a long story."

* * *

_Two months ago_

Anatoli sat in the large bathtub, filled with steaming hot bubbled, caramel scented water that fogged up the windows and mirror. His arms lay out on the sides, his back and underarms resting on the cool bright white ceramic, a joint between his lips.

"This," he said holding the extinguish rolly in the air. "is one of my three of my favourite things." he held it between his lips, grabbing the cheap plastic lighter from the side and lighting the crisp paper and dried plant.

A echoed hum of interest sounded from the other room, through the open door.

"Weed, a hot bath," his said, voice slightly muffled. "And you. My English muffin."

"And they say romance is dead." Fyers said, stepping into the bathroom in nothing but a snow white dressing gown, a glass of straight whiskey in his hand.

"Lay with me." Anatoli said, eyes still looking across the warm waters, arms relaxing back on the bath.

Fyers smirked. He undid his belt, gown slipping from his shoulders to the floor. He stepped from the heap and walked over to the tub, placing the glass down gently on the tile floor, behind the older man's back. Holding the sides of the bath, he stepped inside. He straddled Anatoli's lap, lying on the man's wide chest, head tucked under his beard covered jaw.

Anatoli chuckled, running a hand down the blonde's side; over his ribs to his plump behind.

Fyers took the joint from the Russian's lips, taking drag and exhausted a puff of smoke. He sat up upon Anatoli's lap, rolly balanced between his long pale fingers. He lent forward and kissed the older man.

Anatoli cupped his cheek tenderly, kissing him back.

Pulling back Fyers smiled down to the man. He placed the rolled up weed back between his lips, releasing another puff of smoke as he lent over the side, returning with the whiskey in hand.

Anatoli grinned as Edward passed it to him. He took a sip. He groaned, eyes falling shut. "Simply divine."

"I thought you preferred vodka?"

Anatoli smirked.

Fyers curled back onto Anatoli's chest, the rolled up plant between his fingers having turned him to jelly. His hand was bent over the side of the bath, a small bundle of ash falling from it like a lump of snow from a roof.

Anatoli ran a hand through the soft blonde hair, eyes falling shut as he rubbed his prickly cheek on top of Fyers' head. Nothing but the sound of the younger man's breath, the warmth of the water and their bodies, and the hypnotizing smell of the burning plant.

* * *

_Present_

Fyers' crystal eyes tinged with the lightest shade of blue, shot to Anatoli's dark grey orbs as the group moved to the living room. The man felt him looking and met his gaze, smiling lightly at the Englishman. Fyers looked away, smile pulling at his lips.

"So," Thea said sitting down on the black leather three seated sofa. "Anymore surprise guests?"

"Just two." Oliver said, easing down next to his sister with a grunt.

"Oliver!" Thea laughed. "Honestly."

Slade took the seat next to Oliver, Anatoli the arm chair and Fyers the love seat.

"What?" Oliver said, placing his hand on his bump.

"You didn't have to hide this part of your life." Thea said, looking at her sibling in confusion. Trying desperately to understand.

"Thea..." Oliver sighed, "I- I was happy." he added. "I am happy and when I was there I didn't have to pretend."

"Pretend?"

"I'll show you around." Anatoli said to Fyers as he stood.

"Sounds great." Edward said, following the man out the room.

Oliver watched them go. Then he took a breath and turned to Thea. "Thea." he paused. "I was in trouble, I got caught up in something and I could not leave. I met Yao Fei, his daughter Shado and Slade, and I was save. They protected me and taught me how to fight. And then there was Fyers and Anatoli and- It was home." he said, looking down to the floor, away from his sister's shocked expression. "When you leave home you start your own little family. Your own life. And yeah, everything worked out fine but back then, had Slade not made me, I don't know if I could of left. So, yeah I'm ashamed because I know you and mom needed me but I thought if I came back I would lose them all and have to pretend to be some alcoholic playboy who tears lives apart and I'm just not that person anymore."

"Thank you."

Oliver looked up at the sound of his sister's broken voice. A tear ran down her cheek.

"I was lost without you." she jumped from her seat and hugged her brother, minding his large bump.

"I thought about you everyday." Ollie said, wrapping an arm around her.

She pulled back, wiping her eyes as she returned to her seat. "So what happened when Slade said he was coming to Starling?"

"You saw him first in the kitchen."

Thea leant forward, looking around her brother to the Aussie. "You just showed up?"

Slade shrugged.

"Oh my god." Thea giggled, turning to her brother. "What did you say?"

"Swore a lot and told him to leave."

Thea shook her head, a smile on her lips.

* * *

Anatoli and Fyers stood in the dinning room, lips locked. The Englishman gripped the Russian's shoulder, while the older man had his hands on the younger's hips.

"I've- missed you Tolie." Edward said between kisses.

Anatoli pulled the man into a hug, kissing the top of his head. "And I you, muffin."

"You have no idea how weird that nickname is." the dirty blonde said with a grin.

Anatoli was about to respond when the laptop jingled, flashing the login screen.

Fyers pulled back, kissing the Russian's chin before sitting down in front of the laptop.

"What have you found out so far?" Anatoli asked, sitting next to the younger man.

"Well this, according to Yao Fei, rambling tech was looking into the bank records of Oliver's family." Edward said, pulling up the records. "Moira has been sending money every month to pay for a warehouse."

"Interesting."

Fyers nodded, humming in agreement. "Yao Fei has picked Shado up and the two are heading over to check it out."

* * *

_One month ago_

"Mr Wilson." Diggle followed the Aussie into living room, a look on his face that clearly showed he was suffering from a sudden lose of humour. "I am here for your and Oliver's safety. How am I suppose to do that when you keep running off?"

"I'm stir-crazy."

"You're not around enough to be stir-crazy."

Slade smirked. "I'll tell you what." he said, turning around. "As we're the only ones here and as a fellow man in who was in the military, if you can get in a hit. I'll tell you exactly where I'm going. Hell, I'll even take you."

"I don't think that this is a wise idea."

"I can take a hit John." The Aussie said, tugging at the scarf around his neck. "You think that you can actually hit me?"

"With all respect, I was in special forces."

Slade's smirk grew, the tips of his canines on show.

Diggle looked at the man for a few seconds before the corners of his lips turned up ever so slightly. He nodded. "Okay."

Slade waved him over to the back garden.

"I get a hit in, you tell me?"

"That's what I said." Slade pulled open the sliding glass doors, stepping outside on to the patio. "Let's say that you need to touch my chest or neck."

"Seems easy enough."

"I'll try not to kick your arse too badly."

Diggle grinned. "Whatever you say Mr Wilson."

"Slade." The Australian said, walking across until he was far enough from the pool before he turned round. He turned to face the other man, stripping off his dress shirt, his black tank top the only thing hiding the scars on his chest. The same could not be said for his crossed arms which were covered by old cuts and burns, made years before the mirakuru and a bullet wound from Fyers.

"How long were you in the navy?" Diggle asked, slipping off his suit jacket.

"Since I was sixteen."

Diggle blinked. "Impressive. I thought the age of entry was eighteen."

"It is. I lied."

"Ah. Did they ever find out?" He asked, removing his tie and dropping it on his jacket.

"Most likely." Slade shrugged. "You were in Afghanistan?"

Diggle nodded. "Not a nice place. Not the parts I saw anyway. I take it you've been to the middle east?"

"And Africa, China, Korea, Russia. Everywhere really but we don't stay more than a few weeks." Slade said, crossing his arms. "Ready?"

Diggle smirked. Without warning he struck out, throwing one arm out and up to stop Slade from blocking temporarily while his other arm followed, hand out, palm flat to touch Slade's chest. However, with lightening relaxes, Slade's crossed arms shot forward, grabbing hold of Diggle's wrists, pulling his arms out so that the bodyguard's arm crossed. Slade then moved forward and hooked his leg behind Diggle's, causing the man to tirp and land on his back with a thump. Whereby Slade pinned his arms to his chest.

"Don't underestimate me mate." Slade said with a grin, moving back.

Diggle looked at the Aussie with wide eyes. "Noted."

Diggle fought Slade for about another ten minutes. Sometimes striking first and sometimes never getting the chance before getting put on his back. Fights could last for minutes or mere seconds but the result was always the same and not once did Diggle ever lay a finger on Slade's chest or neck.

Diggle, after his multiple failures, gave up. He sat up from where he yet again landed on the grass, the back of his white dress shirt was bound to be stained green but he just smiled and rubbed at his lower back with his hands.

"Press in to the pain with your fingertips." Slade advised, sitting down next to the army man. "It releases knots in the muscle."

Dig press his fingers into the pain. It understandably hurt but it was a dull ache.

Slade shook his head at the man. He batted his hand away and pressed into the spot, hard. When Diggle made a pained notice, Slade just ignored it. "It's like a bullet wound. You have to be quick and hard."

"Something tells me that you were more than just some guy in the navy." Diggle said looking over to the Aussie, "Though I have a feeling you're not going to tell me."

Slade just smirked. "What's got you in such a good mood?"

"What do you mean?"

Slade shrugged, moving his hand away. "You seemed more chilled out." He put his hands on the back of his head and let himself fall down on to the grass. His right eye falling shut as it was more sensitive to the bright light.

"Looking forward to being a father?"

"Very but don't think I'm going to let this go." he grinned. "Oliver will tell you that I'm a real stubborn bastard."

"Do you know why I quit the army?"

Slade just blinked... Technically winked. It was clearly a rhetorical question.

"I had a job to protect this man, real sick son of a bitch. I saved his life by shooting this guy but," his lips twitched, distressed by just thinking of the event. "I pulled back his cover and it was just a kid, no older than sixteen. All he wanted was to stop this piece of shit and I saved him."

"Was he of use?"

Diggle gave the man a weird look.

"Did saving this man in term save others?" Slade asked, seeming completely unaffected by the story.

Diggle nodded.

"And that's why you were protecting him, so he could be of use?"

Once again Diggle nodded, starting to understand Slade's way of thinking.

"Mate, you don't look like the kind of guy who would just kill cause you were told to." Slade closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the sun on his face even if his right eye was a little pained by the light. "And the fact that you feel bad is a good thing. You should but you shouldn't let it stop you from being a fighter."

"Like you have?"

"Haven't we already established that I'm not that shallow?"

"So you haven't given up what you're doing?"

"In a sense."

"Does Oliver know?"

"Of course." Slade sat up. "Now it's your turn to share something. Once again. What has you in a good mood?"

Diggle leered at the man.

Slade leered back.

Diggle rolled his eyes. "My brother was in the army too and he was killed in action."

"Sorry to hear that."

John could not help the smile that pulled at his lips. "I just found out that a few months ago, that his killer was in Starling and he was killed by the vigilante."

Slade looked over to the army man, eyebrows raised.

"To think that some nut job wearing a orange and black mask, with pair of swords would kill the man who killed my brother." He shook his head. "It's just- I don't know."

"Wrong that you're be happy?" Slade snorted. "Hardly. Whatever your view on this guy or his partner in the hood is, it doesn't matter. Your brother's killer is dead, you can be happy for that."

"I'd shake that guy's hand." Diggle said honestly.

Slade smirked. "Well if you ever get the chance go for it."

Oliver had been right. Diggle would be a useful member of the team. Although the matter would most likely be left until the baby was born and Oliver could take his rightful place under the hood, where Yao Fei was currently keeping it warm.

* * *

_Present_

Walter and Moira looked at each other in question when they heard the sound of laugher from the living room. They followed the sound to see Oliver, Thea and two mystery men neither of them had met before.

"Hey mom." Thea smiled up at her mother. "These are friends of Oliver's."

"Oh." Moira smiled politely.

Fyers stood, placing the underneath of his fingers on his chest. "I am Edward Fyers." He held an arm out to the Russian. "And this is Anatoli."

"It is good to see another Englishman in the house." Walter said, stepping over and holding a hand out for the other man to shake. "I'm from London myself."

"Bristol." Fyers said, shaking the hand.

"Another man of an English city." Walter commented before moving to Anatoli. "Are you from England too?"

"A little further east." Anatoli said, shaking his hand.

"Russian?" Moira said.

"I met these two in China." Oliver said, "I kind of want to talk to you two about that."

Moira lowered her brows in confusion.

At that moment Slade stepped into the room, mobile held to his chest. "No luck." he said to the group, before turning to the new arrivals. "Friend of mine is having some technical problems."

"Oh, what's the matter." Walter asked.

"Can't say. She's a lawyer, you know how they are with case work." Oliver said.

Fyers meanwhile sat back down, trying to think on what the pass code to the door could be. It was not Oliver, Thea or Walter. They were lucky that they had another go and as Yao Fei and Shado had to take out a camera to save themselves from being seen, time was running out. Moira had got the warehouse five months after the gambit went down, maybe she had been missing her husband Robert, maybe his name was the pass code.

"O antigo marido." Fyers said to Slade. The Aussie did not understand Portuguese but Anatoli did.

"Старый муж" Anatoli translated into Russian.

Slade blinked. "舊的丈夫" he said down the phone, along with his goodbyes to the people who had long ago hung up on him, to keep up appearances to the somewhat baffled husband and wife.

Oliver shrugged. "We get messages around one way or another."

"It's impressive." Moira said. She pointed at Slade. "Russian and Chinese."

Slade nodded, wanting to say "And the rest."

Then she turned to Anatoli. "English, Russian and forgive me I did not recognise the first language."

Oliver winced, his mother had no idea how rude hand or finger -especially- pointing was in Russia.

"Portuguese." Anatoli answered.

"Ah." Moira nodded. "Oliver knows Russian but I guess you already knew that."

"He did teach me." Oliver said, slowly rising from the sofa, unsurprised when Slade helped him up. He just wanted to get this over with. He was tired and his body was beyond worn and sore. "Let's go to the dinning room and I'll explain everything."

* * *

Slade moved away from the group as Oliver started to tell his story when Yao Fei called him. He stepped back into the living room before answering.

* * *

"So the fisherman found me and I was sent to China where I met Slade, as I said before." Oliver said. He sat on one side of the large table, with Anatoli and Fyers at each side. Thea, Moira and Walter opposite them. "However that was 2011, one year before I came home."

"A whole year?" Thea said with wide eyes.

"What happened?" Moira asked, "Why didn't you call?"

"I had been unlucky enough to pretty much stumble into witnessing the Chinese mafia doing some not so legal stuff. Had I gone home or just got it contact with you, you would have been in serious danger." Ollie said, "I was fine. I was safe."

Moira shook her head in disbelief, her husband sitting beside her with a hand on her shoulder. Thea just look on, mouth hanging open.

"Slade kept me safe and I lived with him, a friend of his and that man's daughter. Both of whom you can meet later. I heard he just got a job here in the city." Oliver said casually.

"What about your friends?" Thea asked.

"Oh well Fyers worked by imprisoning people with a group of mercenaries and Anatoli is the head of the Russian mafia." Oliver said without batting an eye.

"That's a little stereotypical my friend." Anatoli said with a smirk.

"Why are English people always the bad guys in American films?" Fyers mumbled to himself.

Oliver grinned before turning to his mother. "They're like family to me. Slade's friend looked after me like I was his son, his daughter treated me like a brother," he wrapped an arm around Fyers' shoulders. "Fyers is my brother and Anatoli... Is like my fun uncle." his grin grew as he eyed the Russian. "Always letting me get away things and giving me lots of fun things to play with."

Anatoli laughed. "I guess you could say that."

Fyers could not help but grin, wrapping an arm around the younger blonde's ribs. It help so good having him back again.

Oliver smiled as he heard Slade walk into the room. "Hey Sl-" he voice cut out when he saw the look on the man's face. "What?"

"They found it."

Oliver gave him an odd look. "Found what?"

Slade sighed. "The one thing we never could."

Oliver's expression fell. "No."

"That was what..." Fyers looked down at the table in shock.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Oliver slammed his hands down on the table, his eyes dead set on his mother's. He stood, chair falling back. "How could you? The hell is wrong with you?"

"Oliv-" Moira started to say.

"The warehouse, we found it." he growled, hand on his head, not believing this was really happening. Just seconds ago they had been smiling, they would move on from this moment of his faked past and things would have been fine. But no longer. "The one you pay into every month. The one that had dad's name as a password to get in. That one!" he yelled.

"Ollie." Thea said, worried.

"You don't understand." Moira said, hands shaking as she held them up.

" **I** don't understand?!" Oliver grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head, pointing at the scars Billy Wintergreen had left him. "Was this your fault?"

"Oh god." Moira gasped.

Slade just watched. Oliver needed to get this out, he would not go so far to tell them everything and truth be told the woman deserved this.

Oliver span around so she could see the scars on his back as well before turning to face her. "But let's forget about me for a second, because you clearly fucking do, every second of the damn day when you expect me to be normal. What about dad? What did he do to you?" He threw his shirt at the woman.

Walter held an arm in front of his wife to protect her. "Oliver calm down." He said, voice firm but calm.

"What about my ninth birthday? Yeah I figured it out."

Slade blinked, remembering when Oliver had realised. The man had curled up in bed for an hour, the Australian tucked in behind him and did his best to make his love feel better. Thea had been conceived at Oliver's ninth birthday party.

"Who was?" Oliver hummed. "Who the fuck was it?" he wanted to yell till he was red in the face.

"Don't." Moira begged.

"Unlike some people I care for this family!" Oliver placed a hand on his belly when it started to cramp from all the sudden movement and yelling.

"I never meant for what is in the warehouse to happen." Moira said, "I had no doing it that."

"Why the hell do you have it?"

"How did you find out?"

"Are you seriously changing the subject right now?" Oliver laughed. "If you must know, Yao Fei was the name of Slade's friend. He's also a translator at Queen Consolidated. I knew you were hiding something and I had to know." he ran a hand though his hair again. "Did you have Slade attacked? Do you know who did it?"

"I would never Oliver."

"Calling bullshit on that one." Slade commented, holding back his anger. "We both know you know something about that."

"And I didn't call you out on it." Oliver said, "Because I hoped that you would just tell me. I trusted you but this," he glared at her. "This is too far, even for you." he said, panting. "How could- ow." he wrapped an arm around his bump. "Ow. Oh God that hurts." He fell to his knees, thumping hard on the wood floor.

"Oliver." Slade ran over to the blonde. He rested a hand on Oliver's back, between his shoulder blades. "What's wrong?"

"I think the baby's coming." Oliver gasped in pain, body curling over his pained belly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may blame the writer of Reap What You So for the Anatoli/Fyers. It was a good idea.
> 
> And the thought of Thea being conceived on Oliver 9th Birthday was by SINslayer7


	13. A Matter of Waiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Anatoli and Yao Fei's grammar will be patchy. There English is not the best.
> 
> I wish I could be nice to Moira but this plot was made long before Seeing Red.

A nurse in scrubs came into the waiting room where the group -minus Slade and Oliver- all sprung up as she made her way over. Shado and Yao Fei had been contacted to get to the hospital but had yet to arrive. Although truth be told the group had only been there for fifteen minutes.

"Queen?" She asked.

"Yes." Thea said straight away. "Is Ollie okay?"

"He's fine." The nurse assured, "They have just gone in and everything looks fine."

"He was in pain." Moira said.

"Yes." the nurse nodded. "The reason why we ask that the surgery is set two weeks before the date is to avoid the father from going into labour but still giving the baby the best chance to be born healthy." she held out her hands as she explained. "When a woman's _water brakes_ it is releasing lubricant to make the birth process easier. In men this can not happen which is why going into labour can be often be dangerous. Oliver is fine, however the release of lubricant triggers labour to start. As there is no birth cannel, the body basically panics which in term causes pain to build abnormally high. Oliver is sedated and doing very well."

"Hang on." Fyers said, "The baby is four weeks premature?"

The nurse shook her said. "A baby is considered premature if he or she is born on the thirty-seventh week or less. This baby is in its thirty-sixth week. Still premature but stronger. However the baby should stay in the hospital for at least two days just to be sure."

Fyers nodded. He slumped down onto a seat, running a hand over his face.

"I will keep you informed as we go." The nurse said.

"Thank you." Moira said, before sitting down.

The nurse nodded before walking away.

Anatoli sat next to his blonde, resting his leg up against the other man's to offer some comfort.

Fyers leant into it.

Walter sat down next to his wife, while Thea sat away from her, next to Anatoli.

"Reminds me of the Amazo." Fyers mumbled to Anatoli.

"Yes." Anatoli said, remember how he had watched his lover pull the bullet from his side, squeezing Oliver's shoulder as he worked on himself. "Most extreme. Better equipment."

Edward chuckled lightly.

"He will be okay." Anatoli said.

"I know." he switched to Portuguese. _"He's damn hard to kill."_

Anatoli smiled. "This is true."

The Russian turned to Thea to see that she was clutching a green baby blanket. "Green baby blanket? I should have guessed."

Thea looked up.

Fyers' leant forward to look past the man. "And here I was thinking you were joking."

"He's really liked the colour since he's been back." Thea said, running her hand over it. "Do you know why?"

"It reminds him of the forests on the island." Anatoli said. Not adding how wearing green would help him hide or that it had become a symbol to honour Yao Fei and Shado for giving him his craft.

Moira perked up. "He misses it?"

"In a sense." Fyers' fingertips dug into the sear, he shrugged. "It is very green."

"You've been there?" Walter asked.

"Yeah. It's nice." Fyers said.

Moira shook her head. "My son misses being on an island."

"Yes, because he's the weird one." Fyers commented.

"He's my son." Moira said, eyebrows lowering.

"And he's my brother. I've done a lot of bad things in my past, we all have. Hell, we're some of the most messed up people you will ever have the pleasure of meeting but we don't hide things like this from each other. We stick together." He lifted a hand, palm up. "And this Moira." he said, stirring his finger around the empty space. "Is how many fucks I could give for you right now." He stood from his seat, walking off and mumbling something getting tea angrily.

"Is anyone going to tell me what is going on?" Thea asked the group.

"It is not my place to say." Anatoli spoke up. "Not until I have a chance to talk to Oliver."

Moira's phone started to vibrate. She knew it was Malcolm. He had tried to call her three times since they all left the manor. He likely wanted to talk about someone finding the Queen's Gambit. Thankfully she had an excuse to cover herself ready.

She took the phone out and glanced at it. "I have to take this." she said, standing and walking away.

Thea leant her head against the wall and let out a frustrated sigh. Her eyes fell closed. She fished the phone from her pocket and started to text Roy. She really needed him right now.

* * *

_Ten minuets ago_

John Diggle ran to the front desk, his laptop under one arm. As he stopped, his breath coming out hard and fast, he noticed the Queen family and their guests sitting just down the hall, further in the waiting room. He moved to go over when a hand grabbed his bicep.

"Hey-" he stopped when he saw it was Slade.

"You're here. Good." Slade dragged him out of view. "I've got to go but I need you to do something for me." he lead the man over to an area no one was using.

"Uh, okay?"

"You said you would shake the hand of the man who killed your brother?" Slade said. He grabbed Diggle's hand and shook it. "There you go."

Diggle froze. "What?"

"I can prove that to you later. Right now I need to be out of here." Slade said, "In short, the Queen's Gambit was rigged to explode and Moira may know who did it. All I need you to do is watch her. Don't let her out of your sight. If she goes to talk to someone or gets a call, anything. You tell Fyers or Anatoli as soon as you get a chance. And let them use that laptop to trace it. You got that?"

Diggle blinked, it was a lot to take in. He thought for a second and what Slade was asking was not much but he had to know one thing. "You really killed Andy's killer?" John asked.

"Yeah mate, I really did." Slade looked right into his eyes. "Floyd Lawton. Shot him right between the eyes."

"Okay." Diggle said, "I'll bite but you have to tell me everything."

Slade smirked but still looked more panicked than anything. He slapped Diggle's shoulder with his hand. "Cheers." He then turned and bolted off.

* * *

_Present_

"Fyers!"

Fyers turned around at the sound of his name being called. He hummed in thought when he saw Oliver's bodyguard.

"Hello again."

"Slade told me about the Gambit." John thrust the laptop to him. "Moira is on the phone to someone, he wanted one of you to track it."

Fyers took it, sitting down on a chair leant against the wall. "Good." He said when he found that the machine was on standby. Diggle had been ready for this.

"You asked the right guy." Edward said, typing rapidly.

"I guessed that." John sat down next to him.

"Okay." Fyers said as the laptop began to search. "Here we go."

The two watched as the circle covering a map of Starling City got smaller and smaller, tracking down the phone Moira was calling.

"Come on." Fyers said, dragging on the last word. He leg bounced as causing the laptop to jump around a bit. "Come on."

Diggle watched as the screen started to show completely different areas.

"Bugger!" Fyers growled. Typing furiously. "They're redirecting the signal." he tried every trick he knew and just when the search went back on track, it cut out. "Damn. The call ended." he placed the crooked knuckle of his index finger between his teeth. Knowing there was nothing he could do now.

"What now?" Diggle asked.

Fyers sighed, running a hand through his hand. "Nothing unless I get the time if she makes another call."

"You could call them." Diggle suggested.

Fyers opened his mouth to say something but paused. "I could." he grinned. "No wonder Oliver wanted you to know."

Diggle gave the man an odd look. "Know?"

"About all of this." Fyers waved a hand around. "About how we all really met." He turned to the man. "We get Moira's phone. I bug it. This person calls back, great. If not, we have the number. Pester the person long enough we can get their location."

"And by we, you mean me."

"For the first part, yes I will need your help." Fyers said, "As much I really dislike this woman for hiding what she knows. We believe she may be in some sort of danger. That if she tells anyone, it will not go down well. Telling the police won't do any good because we have no proof. So we need to be the ones to handle this."

"Are you all military or something?"

"A bit of both." Edward pushed, "We need that phone."

"She would need to be distracted long enough for you to get the number, plant the bug and put it back before she notices." Diggle said, "He's very anal. She'll know if its missing."

"Yeah." Fyers nodded. "Worse as we called her out on this whole mess." he folded his arms. "Unless we dart her." he pondered.

Diggle looked over to him.

"Hey its an idea." he smirked. "Plus I'm still a little aggregated about Moira stressing Oliver into labour."

"Oh." Diggle nodded. "Yeah, I can understand that."

"Right." Fyers said, shutting the laptop and taking out his phone.

* * *

Anatoli heard the whimsical chime from his phone and hummed in confusion. It was Fyers special text tune. He took out his phone.

_In canteen. Oliver's bodyguard is part of the team and we have a master plan. ;)_

"Oh dear." Anatoli said. He smiled. Fyers could be so cute sometimes.

"What?" Thea asked.

"It's nothing." he said, "I'm going to see how Eddie is doing." he stood. "Excuse me."

Thea grabbed a hold of his sleeve. She looked up to him and let go when she realised what she was doing. "Sorry." she mumbled.

Anatoli could not help but smile. The Queen children really had a way with him.

"Would you like to come with me?" he asked. "We can grab some coffee."

Thea smiled. "Okay." She stood, following him.

"We'll drop the blanket to a member of staff on the way." Anatoli said as they started off. "Just replying to this text."

"Lucky lady?"

"Do you have a lucky 'fellow'? As Fyers would put it."

Thea giggled. "Yeah. His name's Roy. So this lady?"

"Beautiful." Anatoli said, "A genius with such dry sarcastic humour. I only wish we could spend more time together."

"Sorry to hear that."

"It is fine. What about Roy?"

"He's really nice." she said. The blue eyed girl remembered how her boyfriend's low self-esteem always made him so humble. It was refreshing from all the cocky men she had in her life.

"You should invite him here."

Thea looked up. "Hm?"

"To stand here with you. Keep you sane."

Thea smiled. "Yeah. He asked if he could but I was not sure with this whole thing with mom. It's bad isn't it?"

Anatoli nodded. "At first sight but underneath, it might be better."

* * *

_Have to bring Thea. On my way._

"Change of plans. He's bringing Thea." Fyers said to Diggle. "You take care of her and I'll have a quick word."

"And in the mean time?"

"Could you get me a cup of tea?"

Diggle gave him a deadpan expression.

"I would but it stinks of rancid meat up there."

"That's a bad excuse." John said but stood up anyway. He was going to need a coffee for tonight.

Fyers smirked.

A few minutes later Anatoli and Thea stepped into the canteen.

"Diggle? What are you doing here?" Thea asked as the two stepped over to the table.

"Moral support." Fyers said, before taking a sip from his tea. He sigh in pleasure. Just how he liked it.

"I did not want to intrude." Diggle said, in-between giving the English man weird looks.

"Oh please do." Thea begged.

"You require a shield, I take it?" Fyers asked.

"Well it's not exactly comfortable." She said, "What's with the laptop?"

Fyers' mind went blank. All he could think was a very Oliver lie of 'Tetris. We could be here for a while.'

"I was in a rush." Diggle said, "Forgot I was carrying it."

Fyers blinked. That could work.

Thea frowned and crossed her arms.

Maybe not.

"This is about what happened before, isn't it?" She asked.

"Thea-" Anatoli started.

"You can't tell me what. I get it. Can you tell me what you are doing?"

"Maybe." Fyers said.

"Maybe?" Diggle turned to the Englishmen. "What do you mean maybe?" Then he remembered that Thea could hear them. "Maybe what?"

"Nice save." Thea said.

"Look." Fyers started. "What we found out is not good. Christ is it bad but your mother may not be the bad guy. She could be being blackmailed or threaten. Point is we need to know who is involved so we can help."

Thea looked down to her hands; where the baby blanket had once been. "Okay." she nodded. "How are you going to do that?"

"We need to get her phone and return it without her noticing."

Thea thought for a second, biting her lip. "Fine but I have to know what's going on. Make Oliver tell me. I hate being lied to."

"Fair enough."

Thea's phone buzzed in her hand. He looked at the message.

_Be there in 10._

Thea clicked her fingers. "I have a plan."

* * *

Thea stepped up to her mother. Her eyebrows were furrowed, a frown on her face. "Can I borrow your phone for a minute? I need to call Roy."

Moira was going to say no but she did not need one more thing for her children to hate her for. "Yes." She opened up her bag, grabbing the item and passing to her daughter.

"Thanks." Thea mumbled and turned to walk away.

"Thea-"

"Whatever you have done or are doing." Thea said, turning back. "Get out of it." she walked away, pretending to make a call.

As she went around the corner she jogged over to the group who were waiting.

"Here." she passed the phone to Fyers, who was sitting down with the laptop, the rest standing around him.

"Good." he said. Then he spotted something and smiled. "Great timing."

Yao Fei and Shado walked up to the group.

"Here." Shado said, holding out the circuit board. She looked over to Thea and Diggle. "I'm Shado." She said, bowing her head.

"You're the woman from the diner." Diggle said.

"Small world." Shado smiled. She held a hand to the side. "This is my father."

"Yao Fei." He said, tilting his head forward. "How is Oliver? Are he and the baby alright?"

Thea nodded. Less surprised about how worried the man looked and more about how shocked everyone else seemed by his expression.

"Yeah. They're both fine. He's in surgery now. All's going well."

Yao Fei let out a breath.

"Okay." Thea said. It was all she could really say at this point. "What's that?" she asked, motioning to the circuit board.

"First," Fyers held up the phone. "Do you know this number?"

Thea eyed the number but did not recognise it. "No." she said, shaking her head.

"That leaves two options. Both of which we can only have one go at." Fyers said, opening up the back of the phone. Thanking the heavens that Moira had not got herself an iPhone. "First the bug."

"You're planting a bug?!" Thea exclaimed. She looked around, thankfully no one had noticed what she had said. "Why are you doing that?" she whispered.

"It'll tell me the next time she gets a call which I can then track." he held up a hand. "The other opinion is we can call them."

Shado held out the burner phone.

"Thank you." he said, grabbing the phone and typing in the number. "All I need to do is keep them on the phone long enough. Got to really hope they're polite."

"Why?" Thea asked.

"Well, I can't just pretend to be some random guy. They'll track me down if they figure out I'm trying to keep them on the line and the wrong number gag will only work for a few seconds or so." He pulled up the tracking software on the laptop. "So here goes nothing." Fyers past Thea back her mother's phone.

Fyers felt nervous as the phone started to ring but he took a breath and powered on, balancing the phone between his head and shoulder as he got ready to type.

 _"Hello?"_ a male voice cut in.

Fyers said nothing, typing away as the programme kicked into action.

_Hello?"_

Now was the time, he could not leave the guy hanging too long.

"Hello there sir." Fyers said in an Indian accent. "My name is James and I hope you are having a very good day. I am sorry to trouble you as you must be a very busy man. Going to work, taking the kids to school and doing the house work on top of that. Sir, this call will take not more that a few seconds..." The call cut out, the search stopped and Fyers reverted back to his English accent. "And you hung up."

"Did you seriously just do that?" Shado asked.

"Well now we know it's a man."

Shado shook her head. "It was clever."

"Thank you." Edward smirked.

"I still like you only for Oliver's sake." she sat down next to him. "How close did you get?"

"Two mile radius in the middle of the city." Fyers sighed, typing a few keys on the laptop and shutting it. "It cuts it down but in the worse possible place."

"We have to get the phone back." Anatoli said, "It is set and next time he calls, we will have him."

"But first." Fyers stood, passing Diggle the laptop. "You have to take this and go. We can't have Moira seeing this and setting a trace of her own."

Diggle looked at the machine in his arms worryingly.

"Don't worry. I set it to delete everything and set the trace to go to Shado's laptop."

"Excuse me?"

"It was the only one they don't know about." Fyers shrugged.

* * *

Fyers, Anatoli and Thea -After returning the phone- went back to their old seats. Shado and Yao Fei joining on the end.

"Yao Fei?" Walter was shocked to see the man sitting down with the family and all of Oliver's mystery guests but then he remembered what Oliver had said.

"I owe you apologies for my deceit." Yao Fei said. "But at this moment I am here for Oliver and no other reason."

"Get out." Moira stood. "You are not family."

Shado opened up her father's phone and pulled up the message Oliver had sent him. She strolled up to the woman and held up the screen.

_Having baby. Get to the hospital. I need you._

"Oliver is our family." Shado said, "He's my little brother and we will not leave." she pointed to her father. "He was the first person Oliver met after everything happened and he kept him safe." she held a hand over her heart. "He, then Slade and I vowed to keep him safe. Dad allowed himself to be caught by a killer and a mercenary so that Oliver could get away, and do you know what Oliver did?" she asked, her voice still calm. "He went back to save him."

"He was scared." Fyers said, "But he still did."

Moira dropped back in to her seat. Shado followed suit.

The group sat there for another twenty minutes. Roy had showed up and Anatoli had moved to sit at Fyers' other side to give the young blonde a space next to Thea. There was light chatting between the group. Moira and Walter kept to themselves, Fyers was exhausted from all the traveling and stress, and was leaning his head back, his eyes closed, although not asleep. Lastly Yao Fei had his head down, waiting for news to come.

"Did he have long hair when he came back?" Thea was really taking a liking to all of Oliver's friends.

Shado smiled. "Not too long, he would not cut it for a long time. I plaited it at one point."

"Oh wow." Thea grinned.

"He weirdly suited it." Fyers said.

"If it gets any longer, you could do it again." Thea said.

"It's not too far." Shado said.

Her father sat next to her, eyes closed, head down. His hands were clutching his thighs, showing that his mediating was not going as planned

Shado gripped her father's hand. "So, we're going to be aunties soon."

"Yeah. I have a job at Oliver's club with Roy. I'm going to buy her so much."

"She'll be happy just to have you." Roy said.

Thea smiled at her boyfriend and kissed his cheek.

Doctor Clack stepped over to the family and friends, smiling brightly. "Queen family?"

Everyone stood.

"Oliver is out of surgery. He and Slade are sitting with the baby."

"Can we see?" Thea asked.

"Well, Slade was insistent that you all come in but I must asked that you keep quiet."

* * *

Slade sat on the bed with his partner. Looking down to their breath taking baby girl that lay peacefully in the blonde's arms.

The baby had ever so slightly darker skin which made her look more like she had a tan, her body wrapped in the green blanket Oliver had brought all those mouths ago. Her hair was blonde, practically white. Doctor Clack said that it would darken as she aged. Her eyes were such a dark brown that they were very nearly black, just like her father Slade.

"She's so beautiful." Oliver said. Eyes half lid from the concoction of drugs in his system.

Slade moved forward and kissed his daughter's forehead. He moved back, kissing Oliver's cheek. "The name is perfect."

Oliver smiled. "Yeah."

The two met in a kiss.

Oliver pulled back, glancing at his child. "You are going to know so many languages."

Slade chuckled. He held her head with his large hand. "You get some sleep little one."

"We love you Rose." Oliver said, smiling like a fool. "Thea Rose Wilson."


	14. Welcome, Little One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to see Mcbusted tonight!

Oliver lay on the operating table, his hair held back in a white shower cap. His body from his pecs down was hidden by a wall of a white sheets but pass that his belly lay cut open. The stood surgeons in light blue gowns and plastic gloves, with silver tools, all stained in blood. His blood. Slade sat next to the blonde, also in blue, holding Oliver's hand in his.

"It feels weird," Oliver said. His face was pink, his eyes worn and stressed, his lips pressed tightly closed. "Not painful but..."

Slade kissed the back of Ollie's cream knuckles. "What does it feel like?"

"Tugging," Oliver grimaced as he felt it again. "Like their tugging at my organs."

"That's normal," One of the surgeons said, "We are just about to get her out."

"Okay," Oliver mumbled.

Slade kissed his forehead. "It's okay. I've got you. You'll both me fine. I promise."

Oliver met the Aussie's lips, whining in his mouth as the tugging got more lengthy.

"It's okay," Slade squeezed his hand. "Everything is okay."

Oliver squeezed the tanned hand in time with the long pulls at his insides, it felt just plain wrong and he shook his head side to side, wanting it to stop. His lips moved with mumbled pleads. He did not like this. He did not like imagining himself cut open, his internals on show. He wanted it to stop, to end. Why couldn't he have been asleep? He started to pant as it all become just too much, he could hear his heart on the monitor beating a mile a minute...

Everything fell silence, all pain was gone, even the warmth of Slade's hand and the huskiness of his soft words were dulled when Ollie heard her. He heard Rose cry.

* * *

Moira could not believe her eyes when she saw Slade standing at the side of the bed, a baby, her grandchild wrapped in a white blanket with a green trim, in his arms.

"Oh my God," Thea said. She turned to her brother, smiling wildly. "She's here Ollie. She's really here."

Oliver smiled from where he sat on his bed, wearing a paper gown and Slade's leather jacket over his shoulders. "She's perfect."

"Are you alright?" Anatoli asked.

"You look a little dazed," Fyers added.

Oliver smirked. "I'm very high right now," He whispered.

Shado laughed, which was cut short when her father moved forward.

Yao Fei stepped over to Oliver, on the side Slade was not standing at. He curled an arm around Oliver's neck, his finger running through his hair. He kissed the top of the blonde's head. "I am glad to see that you are okay."

Oliver held on to the man's arm, his grip has strong as he could make it, which was not very. "Thank you for being here."

Fei buried his face in Oliver's dirty blonde hair.

Moira could not believe her eyes. This man really did love her son as if he was his own.

"Slade," Oliver said, eyes shut.

The Aussie nodded as if he had been given some signal. "Moira. Take a seat."

Moira blinked and sat down instantly on one of the seats up against the wall.

Slade walked over and moved his arms forward, offering the baby to her.

Moira inhaled a shape breath as she took her granddaughter in her arms. "Hello there," she blinked rapidly as tears began to cloud her vision. "Hello, little one," she did not mean to use the nickname but she held no regrets when the words left her lips.

Oliver tapped Yao Fei's arm, causing the man to meet his eyes. Ollie pointed over to his mother. "Go sit with her. She's your granddaughter too."

Walter, Thea and Moira were all shocked by Oliver's words. The rest of the group all seemed to smile knowingly, Roy was sitting outside and Yao Fei was giving Oliver an amazed look.

Ollie smiled at the man and nodded to assure him further.

Yao Fei lifted himself from where he had leaned down to hug Oliver. He sat down next to Moira, admiring the child in her arms.

Maybe it was Oliver's classification that he wanted this man to be like a grandfather to the baby or maybe it was just something about the baby herself, but Moira found no anger inside of her soul. She smiled weakly at the Chinese man and held no objection when he reached a hand out and lightly brushed a fingertip along her small delicate cheek.

Fyers took the spot Yao Fei had once been standing in. He looked at the baby being surrounded by those who already loved her as Thea sat next to her mother, Shado her father. He looked over to Slade then to Oliver, who both watched the scene with warm eyes and large smiles, and to Anatoli who just could not take his dark grey eyes off the baby.

Fyers tried his best to keep the smile on his face but all he could think was how possible but impossible this was. If two people cared enough for each other, they could bring a baby into this world and be happy together. As long as no one found out about Slade being a ASIS agent, the mirakuru or that soon Oliver would take Yao Fei's place as the archer. So many parts of their lives; old and new, kept hidden to give them a future.

He glanced back to Anatoli and felt a cold emptiness in his chest. He could never have any sort of future with the Russian. Even if Fyers could keep his past hidden, Anatoli was still part of his. The Solntsevskaya Bratva were not as hateful to male pregnancy as Fyers would have guessed. Russia was one of many cultures that saw it as a miracle and as long as they made the baby, they should get to raise it. Not to say that they were as keen about homosexuality or IVF. Not even remotely close.

Anatoli and Fyers could never be together like a couple should be. Never live together, wake up in the same bed **every** morning, raise a child together... It did not matter if they could make it work emotionally. They would never get that chance.

"What's her name?" Thea asked.

Oliver smiled. "Rose."

"It's a lovely name," Walter commented.

"Defiantly," Thea agreed.

"We'll be calling her Rose but would you like to hear her full name?"

Moira looked up. "Of course."

Oliver looked up to his lover and smiled before returning his glance to the group. "Thea Rose Wilson."

"Y-you..." Thea's bottom lip started to wobbled. She smiled, even as sobs threatened to wreck her body. She stood and jumped over to her brother, only at the last second remembering to hug him gently and to avoid his belly.

Walter watched as his wife frowned but smiled again as the baby took her attention. He could understand how she could be saddened by baby not taking the family name but the fact that Oliver was letting her be the first person to hold the baby other than her parents spoke volumes after discovering the seemingly horrifying secret that Walter and Thea still had yet to learn.

* * *

The following morning Oliver had gone through all the exams needed to set him and his baby on their way back home.

At this moment Slade, who had a large baby bag hanging from his shoulder, was leading Laurel and Tommy to Oliver's room. Tommy had brought a bag of clothes for Oliver with him. Thea must have filled them in on what happened last night as they seemed to be sneaking looks at the Aussie, looking uncomfortable. Just to be sure, he confirmed the fact by pointing out that he did not live too far from the hospital and they did not question it.

Rounding the corner which lead to Oliver's room, his super hearing picked up the sound of someone talking and just for the fact that it was not Oliver, he listened in.

"So you can understand why I couldn't tell you?" It was Fyers? What was he doing here? The two were as close as siblings.

"Yeah. I get that. Plus you and Anatoli being together was unexpected."

Slade very nearly stopped walking. Fyers and Anatoli were together? When the hell did that happen?

"That's how you knew about Rose's gender. We really need to talk more."

"I agree. I'm going to need your help as it is."

The conversation was cut short as Slade entered the room. Oliver was sitting in a wheelchair, legs pulled together to hide his naked body from under his light blue paper gown and Fyers was standing beside him, Rose in his arms.

"Hey," Slade smiled. "Brought you some friends."

"Hey guys," Oliver smiled. "I'd get up and give you both a hug but I'm being held together with stitches and staples right now."

"I can go get some duct tape if you want something more trust worthy?" Fyers asked. He held Rose close to his chest, leaning back so she could rest peacefully.

Oliver smirked, remembering the time Fyers typed him together after Ivo had stabbed him. It would not be the last time items like clothes and type were used to cover and close his wounds, or even odder using salt or peanut butter to stop a wound from bleeding. The last of which he would always prefer using than salt which was unbelievably painful and only more useful for bigger, gaping wounds.

"This is Fyers by the way," Ollie said, holding a hand up to his friend. "Good friend of mine. And this is Rose. My daughter."

"I can't believe you really have a kid," Laurel said.

"Seriously man. Its amazing," Tommy smiled like a fool. He lifted the bag of clothes, wiggling it around. "I brought you some clothes."

"Good because I'm feeling a little exposed."

"I can see that."

Oliver frowned, he grabbed Slade's jacket from the bed, draping over his legs. "How about you guys give Fyers a hand to get Rose changed why I go get dressed?"

"She's going to need a diaper change too," Slade pointed out, settling the baby bag on the bed and pulling out a small white onesie and a fresh diaper.

Fyers looked down to Rose, giving her an intrigued look, only just catching a change in smell when he gave her a sniff. "Your dad's nose really is impressive," he smiled, rocking her back and forth. "Let's get you cleaned up, hm?"

Slade stepped over, kissing his daughter's forehead before moving to the back of Oliver's chair and pushing him to the bathroom.

* * *

"She's so cute," Laurel said. She was holding Rose and feeding her man-made colostrum from a bottle; also known as 'first milk', were the liquid was full of antibiotics that the baby would not have in their system. "So well-behaved."

"Where on earth did she get that?" Thea asked from where she was making her brother a cup of tea.

Shado and Laurel smiled, the first of which hummed in agreement.

"Whoa," Tommy said, stepping into the living room. "You should see that baby room."

"They will both make great parents," Shado said from where she sat on the sofa.

Fyers and Yao Fei had retired to their hotel rooms, while Anatoli first had to drop off Shado's laptop to the Bratva for safe keeping.

"For sure," Tommy nodded. "I just expected them to be at the Queen manor..."

"Great hinting there," Thea said, placing the tea on the counter, all set to go to her recovering brother. "And I'm not to person you should be asking," she looked over to Shado.

"I'm not the person who will be answering," Shado pointed out.

Thea shrugged. "Worth a try," she picked up the tea and headed to the master bedroom but not before adding; "Could you just fix it? Whatever it is."

"It can't be fixed but if the aftermath can be, it will," Shado said, black eyes full of calm determination.

* * *

Oliver lay down in bed, Slade tucking him in and getting him comfortable.

The Aussie could hear Laurel talking about his daughter being cute... His daughter. Such an odd thing to think about. He had a child, with Oliver; the person he cared for the most in the world, the person who was his world. His sanity.

Slade smiled down to Oliver.

"What?" the blonde asked.

Slade cupped his cheeks with his large tanned hands. "I love you."

For a second Oliver could not believe his ears. He sucked in a breath, his rib cage tightened and his heart thumped wildly in his cheat. "I love you too."

Slade pulled him into a kiss. "You mean the world to me," he pampered Oliver's nose and forehead with kisses, smiling as the younger man chuckled. "You are my world," he kissed those pink lips again. "You and our daughter."

"I feel the same way," Oliver smiled. "I love you so much," he pulled Slade down into a hug.

* * *

A man in his early forties lay on a cool autopsy table, dried blood pouring from the corners of his eyes.

Malcolm watched the heart monitor with fascination. There was a heartbeat. The man had lived.

He was the same height and large build as Oliver's bodyguard turned baby daddy, Slade. His hair was black too but it was longer and buffed up with jell, he had light stubble on his chin and sideburns that ended just before his jaw declined to a point.

Malcolm had tested numerous theories with his supply of the mystery substance in Slade's blood dwindling. At last however, he thinks he may have found the answer to why people kept dying. The substance initial metabolism was just to extreme for a human body to handle. He borrowed a machine from Moira to cut out the middle man, take off some of the heat the subject had to go through and sure enough this man lived.

The backlash to someone living was simple. They would become near impossible to kill and likely not happy that Malcolm had made them that way. Which is why the billionaire kept a few vials of high concentrations of beta blockers and valerian root. A sneaky trick he had learned in the league of assassins. The first a medication, the second a sedative, could both cause memory loss but put together they had the ability to completely wipe a person's memory... if they survived. He had taken years from a person's memory using this trick but never the whole thing. It was not possible but this wonderful gift Slade's blood provided could do the trick, keep the person alive and it did.

Now Malcolm a had solider with affectively super powers who he could make believed he saved, to do his bidding.

One James Howlett. However that name offered too much of his past to find, so when the man awoke, Malcolm would give him back his set of dog tags as a peace-offering, which at this moment sat in the man's pocket. They were too old and worn to be his, likely some sort of family heirloom. Any sort of information had been completely destroyed over time but there was a nickname carved in the back. Logan.


	15. A Matter of Strategy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever want to understand why I love Fyers, then just look up gordon's gin garden party ad. Yes, it was where the line about the tea came from.

"I'll get it," Slade grunted, forcing himself out of bed at the sound of Rose crying. The two of them had started off pretty much sprinting from bed but five days of Rose waking them up at every hour on the hour was getting to be too much.

"Love you forever," Oliver said, curling up under the duvet.

Slade smirked and stood from the bed.

Rose's cries where ear-piercing which made Slade wince once he stepped into her room.

"Baby girl, what's the matter?" he cooed, "Did you get upset because no one was here when you woke up?" he reached into the crib, supporting her head with his hand and pulled her to his naked chest. He rocked her swiftly but gently, as Raisa had shown them. The woman had also suggested that a better parental name for Slade would be papa and to have Rose refer to Yao Fei as baba as Shado already did, which also sorted the matter of whether it was disrespectful to Robert to have Rose call Yao Fei grandpa. A woman of many talents.

"Hey, come on now," he frowned. Maybe singing would help. He did know any lullabies so he improvised saying what came to mind with a tune. "Come on now, go to sleep. There is no reason to cry, papa is here. As you can probably guess, I don't know any lullabies and you're daddy is probably wetting himself by now," he sang huskily. "Shh, shh, shh. It's alright little one. It's alright."

Slade continued to rock Rose, humming and mumbling soft words to her until she had calmed. Her face was a little pink from the crying and she did not seem to want to fall asleep. Her dark eyes kept falling shut, only to snap back open. This was different.

He held her in his arms as he walked around the apartment, trying to get her to fall asleep. With no luck, he decided to look up some advise on his phone. One article was interesting. It said if nothing was wrong, to let the baby cry and that soon he or she will quite down, as comforting crying would only make it worse. The Aussie could see where they were coming from but just no. He was not going to listen to Rose cry, even if he could sleep though it.

Slade had remembered how pissed off Oliver had been when the nurses would not let him sleep with the baby in his bed. A few hours old or not, she had slept soundly in his arms. It could work, they just had to be very careful.

Slade stepped into the bedroom, shaking Oliver's shoulder.

"Hm?" Oliver rolled over, opening his eyes. He smiled when he saw Rose in Slade's arms. "Hey Rose," He sat up and took her from Slade, letting her play with his finger as Slade left the room.

The Australian returned not long after with a few blankets. Making a kind of large bowl shape between where they slept.

"What are you doing?" Oliver whispered.

"Making her a bed. She needs her sleep and so do we," Slade said, climbing in to bed. "And I think," he yawned, settling on his side. "This will make her feel better. Having the two of us here."

Oliver smiled, he gently placed Rose within the wall of blankets and lay down onto his side slowly, both not to disturb her and for his still sore body. He hand lay along her side, rubbing his fingertips over her tiny arm.

"I hate hearing her cry," Ollie said.

Slade hummed. He placed his hand on Rose's other arm, his legs cast under her to meet Oliver's.

Oliver moved his hips forward so he could weave his legs with Slade's.

Slade placed his large fingers over Rose's chest, smiling when Oliver's long fingers slid between his.

"Nice song by the way," Oliver commented.

Slade snorted softly. "G'night."

"Goodnight."

After a few seconds, Slade grimed. "Oh Rose," He sighed, getting up.

"What?" Oliver looked down to his daughter who was wiggling about, starting to look uncomfortable.

"Diaper change," Slade explained, picking her up. "It's times like these that I hate the Mirakuru." he mumbled, taking her out the room to change her.

Oliver grinned. Baby poo was not at all fragrant and Mirakuru gave Slade the scent abilities of a blood hound.

* * *

Logan sat on the bed Malcolm had been kind enough to give him, trying to remember something. Anything. But it was not use. He understood and could write English, and that was all he knew about himself... Oh, wait. He was male. **That** was everything. His mind was blank yet overwhelming, like the unnaturally bright white paint walls and tiled floor of his room.

He sighed, face falling into his hands.

A few days ago he had been run down by a car and was dying. Malcolm was experimenting with a drug that could cause a person to heal immensely and knowing the man would die from having his skull cracked open, Malcolm used it. Logan had healed completely, his x-rays had shown as much, but his memory was completely gone due to his head injury.

Malcolm was a wealthy man and swore to Logan that he would do all he could to find out who he was and where he came from and Logan in turn stayed at his labs. Saving a man or not, Malcolm could be arrested for using a drug that had never been tested before on people. Logan trusted that the man knew what he was doing and just hoped that maybe seeing some evidence of his old life would bring back the memories.

Logan listened in as he heard the heavy taps of a pair of shoes, like the ones Malcolm wore with his suits but the steps were to heavy to be Malcolm. Then there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Logan called with his deep booming voice. It sounded coarse like his throat was full of sand paper but that's just what he sounded like apparently.

In stepped a man who Logan had met before when he had first woke up. He was taller and slimmer than Logan but his body was still rather large with blonde hair and hazel eyes.

"How you feeling?"

"Fine," Logan said, "No luck regaining my memory."

"Sorry to hear that but hey you're alive," The man pointed out.

"So... Do you work here or something?"

The man shook his head, a smile on his face which then pulled down. "I'm in the trial to get this drug. I'm dying."

Logan looked down to his hands, feeling bad for complaining about his lack of memory. "Sorry to hear that."

"Nah. It's fine," The man said. "I'm getting the drug tomorrow."

Logan looked up. "Really?"

"Yeah. Malcolm got the all clear."

Logan gave a small smile. "That's good to hear. Are you sick?"

The man nodded. "Problem with my brain. Genetic. I have seizures and anyone of them could kill me," he said, "But if this works, my body will heal completely. Like yours did."

"So it can cure anything?"

"In theory. It healed your body so maybe it can heal disease," The man said. "I hope anyway." he smiled. "I've got to go catch some Zs but me and a few guys will be undergoing tests tomorrow. If all goes well, we all get to live long happy lives."

Logan nodded. "I wish you all well with that."

The man nodded. "My name is Eddie Brock by the way."

"Logan. As far as I know."

Eddie laughed and left the room.

He kept walking at a steady pace till he was on the next floor. Tests taken outside of Logan's room had shown he could hear sounds the human ear could not pick up. Not only that but his sight was beyond belief and his healing factor was out of this world.

Eddie smirked. No wonder that Slade guy did not die when he had slit his throat.

* * *

Oliver placed Rose into some sort of mobile cot, the name of which escaped him but it had a solid plastic handle that had been slotted up for him to carry.

"You ready for your first day outside little one?" Oliver asked his little girl. "I bet you are."

"You make a cute dad. You know that?"

Oliver smiled, standing up and turned to kiss Slade, hands clinging his shoulders.

Slade chucked into the kiss, making a fast dull hum.

"Of course," Oliver said, pulling back. He glanced over to Rose, just to make sure she was still okay. He was over protective, he knew that. He frowned and turned to Slade. "Today's the day."

Slade nodded. "We have to talk to her some time kid, kid."

"I know," Oliver sighed. "But there's something else."

Slade raised a hand to Oliver's cheek. "What's wrong?"

"This morning I-"

There was a knock at the door.

"We're all set." Fyers called.

"I'll tell you later," Oliver said, adding. "It's not an emergency."

Slade nodded. "Alright," he moved over to unlatch the front door. "Brit," he greeted.

"Aussie," Fyers nodded.

Slade left the door open for the Englishmen as he left to see to Oliver and the baby.

"How is she?"

"Better," Oliver said, rocking the handle back and forth, smiling wide as Rose giggled. "We've started sleeping with her in our bed."

Fyers knelt down to the baby. "Hey princess," he smiled, patting down her snow-white dress, it was covered with mostly soft blue roses and a purple one every so often, a blue ribbon was tied around her ribs in a bow. "How old will she be when she starts talking?"

Slade shrugged. "A year."

Fyers met Rose's eyes. "I will be back for that," he laughed softly as she grabbed on to one of his fingers.

"How many people are hanging around outside?" Slade asked.

"Enough that I got in using the fire escape."

Oliver frowned. "You need to be more careful."

"He's a grown man," Slade pointed out, giving the younger man an odd look when he looked away.

"Anyway," Fyers cut in. "Diggle will act as a distraction, Yao Fei and Shado are at the back entrance."

"Why didn't one of them come up?" Oliver asked.

"Because I'm one of the few people in our group who is not a gymnast and they thought it would be funny to watch."

Oliver smirked.

"Thanks for having my back," Fyers leered at Ollie. "Tommy is already at the manor and Diggle will meet up with us there shortly after."

"Let's get going then," Slade stepped over and picked up the mobile cot, he also had a backpack full of supplies thrown over his shoulder.

Oliver nodded. "Right."

* * *

Malcolm smiled devilishly as his five newly made super soldiers stood in front of him. One had cut along the inside of his arm, seeing if the healing abilities were indeed genuine. It stopped bleeding in seconds and was already starting to heal. Three of them were American, one African, the last German. All were trained soldiers turned mercenaries. Draw in by the offer of invulnerability, although it was safe to say they never expected something like this.

"The mission is simple," Malcolm said, which drew their attention, they talking silenced. "There is a man with abilities like yours, he is a danger. I want him caught and brought to me alive. If you can not guarantee his life then bring me his corpse but do not let him get away and do not leave behind a mess. This substance in your and his veins can be taken and used to make more."

"His name?" One man asked.

"Slade Wilson. Age forty, Australian, ex-Navy," Malcolm said, "You will attack when he is alone, meaning this could be put off till another day. I will provide you with weaponry," he turned to Eddie, who was leaning against the door frame. "You will take care of our other problem."

"The one we don't already have?"

Malcolm grinned. "He will be useful. Like Logan."

Eddie blinked. Wipe his memory and use him as a weapon? "Clever," he said, walking over to one of the autopsy tables and hopped on. "Juice me up."

Malcolm turned to the group. "This stays between us. As far as the people you meet in this building know, you are undergoing medical treatment and of course you will be paid for your services."

"If this stuff is as good as you said it is, we'll be unstoppable," one of the men spoke up.

"And you'll get a lot of work for it," Malcolm nodded. "But I suggest you stick with me. I have the money and if I can find out how to get this from your blood then another can and will. Five against one is simple. If this gets out however then you'll be just like everyone else," he said, "Like Slade. He has it and he hides, he clearly knows the danger of others finding out."

Malcolm stepped over to the table Eddie was lying odd, grabbing a syringe and filling it with morphine as he passed. "The drug is painful," he explained.

"That's one way of putting it," the hazel eyed man mumbled.

Malcolm was half tempted to gab the needle in when the time came but he was in too good a mood. He would have six soldiers including Eddie, Logan who would do anything to keep Malcolm safe, making him the perfect security and Roy, literally a human shield who he could use to stop Moira from acting out, either for his safety or Thea's. Eight men. Eight was the number of prosperity after all.

* * *

Moira smiled as she saw her son and grandchild for the first time in days. She showed the group to the garden where Thea, Tommy and Laurel were waiting with an assortment of toys for the baby. Raisa made tea and an array of pastries and cut fruit. The people chatted but mostly they cooed over Rose. The child was acting as their only real distraction against the elephant in the room, which Tommy and Laurel had yet to learn of. However as Moira stood and went inside, Slade followed, kissing Oliver's cheek before he left.

"Walter not here?" Slade questioned Moira as he found her looking at a phone, the very phone they had bugged.

"No," she shook her head. He had moved into a hotel days ago. She took a breath and slipped her phone back into her bag, turning to face the Australian. "You have something to say," It was a fact, not a question.

"Moira, this is not going to go away. You're lucky Oliver is still willing to see you."

She glared at him. "How dare-"

"You know why you're lucky?" he asked. "Because I convinced him that you were not at fault. I did the same for the rest of them too. So you may think Fyers was hostile but without my intervention he would have torn you a new arsehole." Slade's words were rough and low as they ever were but no worse.

Moira blinked, taking a step back. She remembered the rapid Russian to Anatoli which went to Fyers in Portuguese. She had never thought that he was making them stand down but when she looked back, she remembered how they all kept to themselves and when they did speak they were civil for the most part.

"I don't want Oliver to lose his mother, nor Rose lose her grandmother. I'm on your side but I can't help you if you don't let me."

Moira opened her mouth to say something but shut it with a sigh.

"I can protect them. Oliver, Thea, Rose, but you're the only one who can make a change," Slade said, looking deep into her eyes. "They are my family, just as you are and I don't want any of you to live in fear. You're the only one who can put an end to whatever the hell this is before it's too late."

Moira continued to say nothing but took in every word the man said.

"You're a strong woman, Moira. Don't doubt that things can change," and with that he turned and left. Pushing would not help. It was all up to her, for now.

* * *

Through out the day Fyers stuck with Oliver, helping him with all the little things in life that were so easy when you had not had surgery recently, not that either of them minded. Oliver was happy not to feel useless around his partner and Fyers needed some time away from Anatoli after their talk this morning. He needed to think.

Fyers stayed with Oliver when they got back to Slade's apartment, so that the Aussie could get some baby supplies before they called it a night. Which is how they ended up on the sofa with cups of tea, watching a game show while Rose slept in her cot.

"She must be exhausted," Oliver said, glancing over to her open door. "It's not like her to fall asleep so quickly and stay that way without someone holding her."

"Just wait till she's running around," Fyers said, "If she's anything like you and Slade, she'll be impossible to keep still."

Oliver laughed softly. "Yeah. Enjoying the tea?"

"Ah, yes." The Englishman hummed. "I'm getting," he wafted his hand. "The flavour of French wildflowers, a twist freshly cut grass and pebbles in the rain."

"Stop being so posh," Ollie poked Fyers in the neck, making him squirm.

* * *

Eddie Brock stood at the apartment door, awaiting the signal. He knew from the chatter of his ear piece that the five soldiers were out in the city, awaiting the right time to strike. Once they made their move, he would make his.

 _"We're set."_ One of them said.

Eddie smiled as Malcolm's voice cut through the static.

_"Go."_


	16. A Matter of Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grammar pay be bad, in a rush.

Slade knew he was being followed. A city was not a place you spotted the same persons over and over. Although he was considered "famous" due to his relationship with Oliver, so it was possible that they were just looking to take a picture. Two had shoulder bags which could have cameras in them, but Slade gave them plenty of chances when he pretended to text on his phone, cap pulled off his head. There were no pictures taken. So what was in the bags? That was the biggest worry.

He counted five in total, five men with large builds like that of soldiers. They all walked straight like soldiers, shoulders back, heads held high, all caring guns in holsters on their belts. He could tell one had a Glock, a 45 maybe, two were longer, Smith & Wesson, the last two were something entirely different. The mixture of weapons meant that they were not cops, nor any other organisation, unless they were spies or freelance, that latter of which was looking to be the culprit. They had done this before. They slipped into seats at coffee shops, if they were following right behind Slade and he stopped, they would walk on by. If it was not for the fact that they kept appearing in Slade's heightened senses, he would not have noticed. He did not make contact, did not bump into one of them nor take a picture, to get an ID. They were planning something, an ambush maybe, which if so, he needed to know where they all were, he could not afford to scare them off.

So, Slade lead them, texting Anatoli to give him control of the local members of the Solntsevskaya Bratva, finding him an area to turn the possible attack around, as the group continued to follow, the Aussie asked for further assistance before the Bratva left the area. If he was attacked, he could protect himself and he did not wish for Anatoli and Oliver's men to be harmed.

Slade went to the Glades, he thought about going into a shop or two along the way to keep up his appearance of unsuspecting but if he did kill these men, he did not need evidence against him. He also thought about getting Fyers to hack the cameras he passed, to find out who was following him but he was with Oliver and he did not want to alarm his partner.

The Australian continued till he came to an alley way, he turned the corner to a small, mostly empty car park behind some abandoned buildings, he was hidden and the buildings were close enough together that a sniper would be at a disadvantage unless they was on the fire escape, putting them in clear view. The area was no dead end so Slade could run if he needed to and the area had objects which he would hide behind, including two run down cars that had already been stripped for parts but thankfully still had doors, or door. And there, sitting in a tower of tires was a two hand guns, ammo, a straight katana sword, in a holster attached to a strap to hold it to his back, and a metal mask.

The mask was almost the exact same as the Deathstroke one he had made, it had the same gaps over the mouth and a thinner set at the back, both for ventilation. The mask covered the whole of his face and skull, leaving only his jaw and neck exposed for easy movement, and a layer of tinted glass over his right eye so he is not blinded by bright lights, followed by a layer of hard plastic in case the glass were to break. Due to these layers taking so much space, the area around the gap for the eyes was raised, giving the mask an almost angry expression. The mouth was also raised for easy breathing. The only difference between his mask and this one was that it was all black and although the man knew who he was, or at least what he looked like, this mask was made for the protection of his skull, not his identity. The mental was knife proof and resistant to guns, and explosions at a stretch.

The only weak spot was the eye wholes, for Slade anyway. So his only real worry was long distance weaponry like snipers and archers, none of which these men were carrying, although something like that could be in the bags.

The first man, an American with dark hair and blue eyes, rounded the corner, surprised when he saw Slade just standing there but his hand was already to his gun like he suspected something of this nature.

Slade stood, mask on, katana on his back, his leather jacket throw into one of the cars, guns pressed against his lower back by his belt. He was ready.

The American whistled and one by one, the other four joined, creating a line.

One of the men, African, spoke up. "Waiting for us?" his voice had a thick South African accent. He smirked. "That was stupid." he reached for his gun, pulling the safety back, while his other hand pulled a silencer from his pocket.

Within a blink of an eye, Slade pulled out both guns, pulled the safety back on both and shot the man in the hand.

The man yelled out in profanity, grabbing hold of his hand and holding it to his chest.

"Let's not go that again," Slade said, tilting his head to the side, "Hm?" he hummed like a parent cooing to a baby.

The man kept his head down for a few seconds, grunting in agony.

Slade's eyes flew wide as he watched the mental bullet pop from the man's hand, creating a ting on the dull tarmac.

The man laughed, loudly, wide chest filling out with each breath.

"Mirakuru..." Slade mumbled in disbelief.

"So, that's what's it called." Another of the men spoke up, this one had a hint of a German accent. "Mirakuru..." he said the word, seeing how it felt on his lips. "What language is that?"

He had it too. He would not have been able to hear Slade other wise. "Japanese," he said, coming to a horrific conclusion. "You all have it."

The first man smirked, pressing his finger to his ear piece as his South African comrade flicked the blood from his newly healed hand. "We're set."

* * *

Oliver and Fyers shot up as the door was kicked open.

"Now, now," The man said, hands raised. "Let's not put up a fight. You won't like the result."

"What do you want?" Oliver moved over to stand in front of his daughter's bedroom, the slam of the door hitting the wall and the crack of the wood having woke her, making her cry.

Eddie grinned. "You standing in front of it."

"Well you can fuck off," Fyers said, standing beside his brother. "She's just a baby."

Eddie's grin grew when one of the soldiers spoke up. "With Mirakuru."

Oliver and Fyers tensed.

"How do you know what it's called?" Oliver asked, glaring at the man.

"Your boyfriend told me. The one my five friends, all with the Mirakuru, have trapped but don't worry, they won't kill him," Eddie took a step forward, "Although this sure explains how your boyfriend survive me cutting his throat."

Oliver's fists tightened, clicking. "Must have been a surprise."

He took another step. "Just a tad." And another.

"Why do you want Rose?" Oliver asked, hoping that using his daughter's name would make her sound more like a person, a baby, rather than an item.

"Mirakuru is in the blood," Eddie said, "We got it from Slade. Don't quite know how it works but if it's a part of Slade, then it could be part of her and our supply is almost out."

"Yes," Oliver nodded. "She has it."

Fyers looked to Oliver. What was he doing?

"Mirakuru was created during the second world war to create _super soldiers_. Their words, not mine," Oliver shrugged. "But Slade had it in it's **purest** form. Giving him a lot of interesting abilities. After all that happened, the Mirakuru was destroyed, however it can be passed by blood but that man, you and your men have a lowered concentrated dose. We estimate that you are fifty present weaker."

Fyers smiled, going along with Oliver's plan, whatever it may be. "Do tell me, how many of your men are still alive?"

Eddie's lips pressed together, he pressed his ear piece. "Progress?" There was no reply. His men were likely hard at work after all. Eddie chuckled. "Don't believe that you can play games with me. Even if they were only at fifty present, they are still a group and-"

"Not good."

Eddie stiffened at the Australian accent in his ear.

* * *

Slade leant against a car door, panting and holding his gut with his arm, blood pouring down his tanned skin. He knew that in the car, hidden under his jacket, was a bottle of bleach, courtesy of Alexi, in case he needed to remove evidence of himself. There was a dead guy on the floor next to him, a screw driver sticking out of his skull. He smirked, looking out to all the others, all dead, all shot in the head with his or their own guns. Only way to kill a person with Mirakuru, however to get through, a person would need the strength of the Mirakuru.

He moved over to the closest man, groaning at the pain from the three bullets still in his gut. He would heal and the bits of metal would move out of him but not to say the event was at all pleasant. He sat on his knees, pulling the man's shirt over his head, mindful of the screwdriver, and tied it around his wound, not stopping till the pain was unbearable. His jacket would cover the blood so he could head home.

As Slade was removing the shirt, he heard a soft static sound, his keen hearing picked up a voice.

"Progress?"

Slade smirked, snorting lightly. He left the man on the other end to simmer as he tied up his wounds, before removing the ear piece from the corpus.

"Not good." the Aussie said. He pushed himself up, groaning with pain threatened to tear him apart. He should be healing by now. He would have to deal with this later. He placed the item on the top of the car and reached for the bleach.

As he opened the top, he caught the strong odour. His expression melted, his dark eyes blew wide as he placed the voice that nudged at the back of his mind. The smell of the bleach brought back the memory, all those mouths ago. As he hid for 'safety' with a group of people who had come to help him, he remembered the smell of bleach in the air as Oliver's men cleaned up his blood, to hide evidence of serious injury, of the Mirakuru.

It was the man with the hazel eyes. The one who had tried to kill him, and if these men had the Mirakuru, then that would explain where they got it from... This man could have it too.

"They're all dead and I'm coming for you next," Slade said, voice low. He poured the bleach on the small pools of blood that gathered as he sat, Mirakuru stopped his body from bleeding out, and what had been left behind was contaminated by the blood leaking from his victims. Although truth be told, his blood was not on record, so no one could track what had happened back to him.

"Not before I take your baby, Mr Wilson."

* * *

"Damn it!" Malcolm swore, slamming his fists on the metal desk as Slade spoke from the radio, confirming that all his men were dead. He turned to where Roy lay strapped to the table, the damn kid had put up a fight, braking a vile which contained the memory erasing agent, in the process.

He needed to get a handle of things. Slade had to be dealt with but first he had to made sure Eddie got out of there with the baby. Roy had just been injected with the last of the Mirakuru, giving him only three men. It was no where near enough.

He ran from the room, he would have to get Eddie himself, it was the only way to be sure it was done right. He needed to get changed and he needed to get rid of Roy's memory.

As he started down the hall, Malcolm saw Logan, who was coming up to him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, looking at the older man with concern.

He must had heard Malcolm's yelling. Thankfully, he had turned off the radio before he left.

"No," Malcolm held out a hand, holding Logan back as he walked past. "I have no time to-" He stopped. He turned back to Logan. "I need you to inject Roy with the second dose. I knocked the damn thing over," he said, running a hand through his hair, trying to look less angry and more stressed.

"I'm not a doctor," Logan said, "I don't want to end up killing the guy."

"The first dose is the important one, the second is a pain killer. The process is very painful," It was true. Roy had suffered, and after all that struggling which lead to Malcolm getting a punch to the gut, he did not thing the kid deserved pain relief. "It's on the second floor. Up to five, put in more so you can get the air out. It needs to go in the vain in the arm, so pull the end back, there will be blood if you're in a vein," he started, already moving away. "This has to be done Logan. Please, it's very important."

Logan was speechless for a few second before calling out; "Fine."

"The access code is the same for the lab and storage. Five, two, one, nine, five." Malcolm said before bolting off.

* * *

"Not before I take your baby, Mr Wilson." Eddie smiled, long and crazed. He took out the ear piece, crushing it in his grasp and turning his palm, allowing the particles to fall to the ground. "Well," he said as he noticed how utterly destroyed the object was. "This really does have it's benefits."

"Strength, speed, healing factor," Oliver agreed, "Which is why you don't want Rose, she has a very diluted version of Mirakuru."

"Oh?"

"We had her blood tested. It proved what we thought. She'll be stronger and likely heal quick enough that she will have to hid it but compared to what someone with half the dose can do, it's not impressive," Oliver said, "So, you can have that or the source of her abilities."

"Slade?"

"No," Oliver grabbed the bottom of his shirt and lifted it up. "Me."

Fyers' breath caught in his throat as he saw Oliver's bare chest. They was no wound from the C-section, not even a scar. Rose's blood must have affected Oliver, healing him.

"She got the Mirakuru from me," Oliver said, dropping the shirt down. "I'm weak, I can't fight back, I can barely heal but after a few days I shall have enough in my system to create copies."

Fyers grabbed a hold of Oliver's wrist. "Don't," he begged. Oliver may be right, the Mirakuru may still be in his system but it should disappear, and if it did Oliver would be killed but as he felt Oliver flinch at Rose's high pitched cries, the mercenary knew that Ollie would not back down. Oliver could play the fool, play the desperate, mostly because he was but he could use that to make people think differently. To hide the plans in his head. This was their only option and they both knew it. Fyers just hoped that they could get Oliver back.

Oliver placed his hand over Fyers'. "Just leave my daughter alone," The blonde demanded, eyes staring deep into the hazel glaze. "I may be weak but I will gladly fight you to my last breath."

"The same goes for me," Fyers said, "You piece of shit."

* * *

Logan stepped into the lab as the door opened. He saw Roy on the medical table and swore he could smell copper in the air. It smelt like it was coming from Roy but he did not see any wounds. Poor guy, he was more a kid really. Malcolm had said that kid had suffered brain surgery which had gone wrong and that his memory was damaged beyond repair. He had forgot who he was and was suffering from short term memory loss every hour, the last of which the Mirakuru could cure.

There was another smell in the room and it seemed familiar. The first thing that actually seemed familiar. He looked around the room, trying to pinpoint the smell. It was on the ground somewhere. It was then that he spotted the broke vile Malcolm had spoke about, the same type he had in his hand. He knelt down to the broke glass and liquid, and smelt it.

It was... a herb?

A flash went through his mind. He saw the image of a woman's hands crushing up something brown and white in a small stone bowl. The image was quick, making it unclear but he saw his hands on the table and they were small, like he was a child. Possibly standing on a stool. The substance made him think of being relaxed, sleepy. The memory tugged at his brain till he remembered something else... Memory loss.

It could cause memory loss.

"What?" Logan placed the small bottle down, so he did not break it in his hand. He placed both hands on the floors, eyes staring down at the mess, taking in deep breaths from the memories that seemed to have ripped all the energy from his body and mind.

Had Malcolm really intentionally taken his memories?

* * *

"You know what?" Eddie said, removing a gun from his belt. "You have a deal. Get over here."

Oliver looked into Fyers' crystal blue eyes. "I'll be fine."

Fyers wrapped an arm around Oliver's shoulders. "Please be safe."

"You've met me, right?"

Fyers laughed, squeezing the younger man tighter. He did not ever want to let the man go but he had to. He released him. "Yeah, but try."

Oliver smiled. "I promise."

Fyers nodded, smiling back.

Ollie stepped over to Eddie, who locked his wrists behind his back, holding him with one large powerful hand.

Eddie grinned. "Oh and just to show that I'm not afraid to hurt and kill those around you." He raised his gun and shot Fyers in the belly.

"No!" Oliver yelled out, pulling desperately at the man's tight hold.

Fyers grabbed his wound. "No," he gasped as he fell to his knees. "No."

Oliver gasped. "Fyers,"

Fyers fell against the wall with a pained expression; eyes squeezed shut, lips pressed taut, tears rolling down his cheeks as he heard Rose scream in fear.

"No." Oliver said. He resisted as Eddie pulled him out the hall. "Someone call an ambulance! Please!"

Fyers watched the blood poured from his body, vision blinded by the warm tears on his blonde eyelashes. His body shook with sobs, sharp shooting pains stabbed into his body. Blood pooling onto the wooden floor boards.

"It's okay Rose," Fyers called. He gulped, trying to hold back the emotions that were tearing him apart. "It's okay."

* * *

_Fyers sat on the leather sofa in Anatoli's hotel room, staring off into space. It would never work, he and Anatoli. Not before and certainly not now._

_"Hey," Anatoli smiled when he spotted the Englishman. "You should have said you were coming over." He stepped over, kissing the back of the man's neck._

_Fyers flinched, shifting forward but wishing he could lean back into that heat. He had to do this._

_"What's wrong?" Anatoli asked, frowning in worry._

_"We can't be together anymore."_

_Anatoli rounded the sofa, kneeling in front of Fyers "Muffin, what's wrong?"_

_Fyers looked down to his hands. "I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore."_

_Anatoli cupped Fyers' cheek. "Why?"_

_Fyers felt his breath hitch. "We'll fall apart in the end."_

_The Russian took hold of his partner's other cheek, framing his face. "I won't let that happen." he pulled the blonde into a kiss._

_Fyers allowed it. The kiss was warm, soft, his chin and cheeks being tickled by Anatoli's stubble._

_"I'm sorry," Fyers whispered as they broke apart. He moved away from Anatoli, placing the key card to the older man's room on the coffee table before he went out the door. He heard the man call after him but he did not stop. He got in the elevator, out of the hotel and into the parking lot before he finally stopped._

_Fyers leant against the wall of the building, letting his body slide to the ground. "It's going to be okay," he swore as his body started to shake. He placed his hand over his belly button. "Daddy's here."_


	17. A Matter of Explanation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and the next chapter were suppose to be one but never mind. However chapter 19 will be called "The Matter of Fyers" for all those of you wanting to know what's happening there. And if all goes as planned, the next chapter should have an interesting title too.

Detective Lance pulled up to the apartment blocks. He had heard over the radio that Oliver had been kidnapped, his friend shot. He left his car, leaving the door wide open. He ran over to where the medics were patching up the friend for the journey to the hospital. An officer stood off to the side, rocking Rose back and forth to calm her cries. Lance approached the friend first, he needed to find out all he could before the man went in for surgery.

"Edward Fyers," Lance approached, "I'm Detective Lance of the-"

Fyers held up a hand, the other pulling the oxygen mask from his face. He was pale, blood staining his hands and face, his body wrapped up but the blood was seeping through.

"You have to tell Slade," Fyers was gasping frantically, slapping away a medic that tried to talk to him. "They wanted the Mirakuru. Oliver told them he had it-" he took a deep breath. "he proved it. R-Rose passed it to him- Fuck!" he cried out as he pushed himself up too far off the metal stretcher.

The medics forced the mask back on to his face.

Fyers pulled the mask away once more as they loaded him into the ambulance. "Check the tracker!"

"I will," Lance called back. None of what the man was saying made sense, expect for the tracker. Had the man bugged Oliver? Whatever the case, he had to find the Slade.

* * *

Roy woke with a intake of breath, so deep it was like he was filling his lungs for the first time in years, the empty bags swelling with oxygen. He sat up on the mental bed, panting. Realising what had happened, he looked around for that freak who had kidnapped him. His eyes stopped upon a man.

Logan held up his hands, sitting down on the floor to hopefully make himself less threatening.

"Wh-" Roy shook his head, which did not help the dizziness he was feeling. "Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Logan. Do you know yours?"

Roy blinked at the weird question.

"Just tell me you know who you are," Logan said, trying to make his voice sound soft but it was still pretty gruff.

"Roy."

"So it was to erase memories," Logan said to himself, confirming his disbelief to be true. Malcolm had intentionally erased his mind... Well maybe he did not but this could not all be a coincidence. Regardless, he had to be smart about this. Not let on to Malcolm that he knew... But first things first, he had to get this kid out of here.

"I think I may have been kidnapped, like you. I was injected with the thing called Mirakuru, it's some sort of drug that makes a person heal quickly, and makes them stronger," he remembered how he had snapped a toothbrush by accident but then, to prove his new found strength, he had reached under his bed, seeing how easy it would be to bend a bed spring but then snapped that with a flick of his fingers. He had not told Malcolm and now he was thankful for that. "This man, Malcolm, he injected me with something to erase my memories, and he was going to do the same to you. It did not happen."

Roy looked down to his hands. He did not feel any different. This was bull shit. "Okay," Roy nodded. "Say I believe you. What does he want?"

"No idea but I need to find out who I am, so I'm going to stay here. Continue to play ignorance. Now may be your only chance to leave but when you get out, you need to stay out of sight."

"And he's just going to believe you don't know anything?" Roy stood from the table, "I need to get to Thea."

"Stay out of sight," Logan growled. He stood, jerking his head to the door. "Follow me."

* * *

Lance watched what remained of the Queen family, Tommy, Laurel and one of Oliver's Chinese friends, the eldest, who was at this moment holding Rose close to his chest. She had finally settled, from what Lance had heard, seeing as he had to go to the hospital first. Another of Oliver's friends, Anatoli had just sat there looking completely broken and at the same time, ready to go on a killing spree. He was taking what had happened to the Englishman hard. They must have been close.

"Did Fyers say anything thing about who took Oliver?" Thea asked from where she sat on the sofa, curled into her mother's side, who was leaning against Walter. She felt so stressed. Oliver had been kidnapped, Fyers had been shot, Slade was missing and she could not get hold of Roy no matter how much she called him.

Lance shook his head. "He said a lot of things that did not make sense but he wanted me to tell Slade something."

"What is it?" Moira asked.

Lance sighed, trying to think. "Oliver proved that he had something that they wanted. He said it was called a Mi-ra-kuru?"

Yao Fei stiffened. Lance saw this.

"You know what it is?"

The family turned to Yao Fei, Laurel and Tommy walked over from where they had been standing off to the side.

The man nodded. "I do but Oliver does not have it."

"Have what?"

Yao Fei looked around to see the officers dotted around the house. "It is classified."

Lance gave the man a weird look. "By who?"

"That is also classified."

"We need to save Oliver!" Thea yelled. "My brother has been kidnapped, Slade is missing-" she stopped when Rose started to whine.

Yao Fei hushed her, stroking side gently with his hand.

"We need to know," Lance said.

Yao Fei nodded. "Slade is on his way. My daughter is bringing him. You must remove these men so we can speak privately. Knowledge of Mirakuru is extremely dangerous and no more people should know about it. Slade will only remove them himself when he arrives." the man stood, rocking Rose to calm her down.

Moira looked on in shock. "You would rather Oliver died than tell us?"

"I would much rather my own life be taken. Enough people have died knowing about it. I do not wish to see anymore."

Lance just shook his head. "The hell is going on?" he asked himself. He stepped over to one of the officers, if getting them to move would get the man to talk, then that's what he would have to do.

Yao Fai bobbed his body, whispering Mandarin. _"It's okay. You're going to be okay."_

It took a while but Yao Fei managed to calm down his granddaughter with his soft words. Rose did have a long day, followed by a lot of stress by what happened with Oliver and Fyers, else there was no way she would have calmed so quickly. She was still wiggling about a bit and he could not get her to eat. Slade was the best at getting her to eat and fall asleep but Yao Fei had done this with Shado, all by himself for the most part as her mother had died of a blood clot a few months after Shado was born. Asking Moira for help might mean that she would not hand her back and at this moment, Yao Fei did not feel drained by caring for her, he needed to hold her close right now. Needed to feel she was somewhere safe.

"Did Oliver tell you where the name Rose came from?"

The group looked up but Thea was the one to speak. "No. Where?"

Yao Fei smiled.

* * *

_Slade stepped into the aircraft and just about tripped over the door frame when he saw Oliver sitting there, waiting for him. Sat on his lap was a plastic cup filled with that herb Yao Fei had happened upon when he and the Australian had first got away from Fyers' and his men. There were a few plants, leaves filling the cup, looking strong, like they would crack if he squeezed them. When in fact, they were soft like mint leaves._

_"Collecting herbs?"_

_Oliver nodded, looking to the floor and back to Slade sheepishly. "Yao Fei said that there are a lot growing this time of year so we can take some to dry it out, but that's... Um. Not what's these are for."_

_"Hm?" Slade looked at the blonde curiously and stepped over to him._

_It had been a month since Fyers' men had been taken down, the man himself caged up till he group found a way to get back in contact with the outside world. There were no signs of any boats for months, the main radio tower was down, meaning they would have to wait till they saw a sign of someone._

_Oliver shifted uncomfortably. "Shado told me that this plant is called Shanghai's Rose in English. It was named that when they traded it for other goods, but what they wanted more than anything was flowers, especially roses," he explained._

_"That's interesting," Slade cocked a brow._

_"We... Um. Also managed to work out what the date is."_

_Slade blinked. "Oh."_

_Oliver stood, taking the remaining couple of steps up to Slade so he was standing mere inches from the older man, cup of herbs between his hands. "Happy Valentine's day."_

_Slade had no idea what to say to that. He looked into those bright blue eyes that would not meet his, they looked almost emerald green in the low light. Like they were changing to depict his emotions, green with anxiety instead of envy. Slade looked down the 'roses'. He smiled._

_The Aussie placed his hands over Oliver's, leaning forward to kiss Oliver's cheek._

_Oliver froze but felt his body relax with Slade's heat._

_"Thank you."_

_Oliver smiled. He met Slade's black eyes as the man pulled back._

_"Happy Valentine's, kid."_

_Slade kissed the younger man, still feeling the lingering tenseness on his lips._

* * *

"Slade left them in the cup, filling it with fresh water everyday till the plants died."

"That's so sweet," Thea said.

Laurel nodded, a smile pulling at her lips. "He cares a lot about Oliver."

"He's more than willing to die for him." Yao Fei said, remembering how Slade had ran after Oliver when Shado had been down in the plane, bombs raining down on her. Yao Fei knew she would be able to get away and that him running down would only result in getting himself killed but Oliver ran down anyway like he always did, always trying to save everyone. Slade tried to protect him, and had his hand and half his face burned in the process. "Even so, we it comes to finding a member of our family. We are relentless."

Lance took note of what Yao Fei said. They were family? He had to wonder what joined this little ragtag of a family together.

Lance heard one of his officers calling him to the front door, he went, listening to the light chatter of the group as he left.

Arriving at the door, Quentin saw that Slade Wilson was stood there, standing next to a Chinese woman.

"Shado?"

She nodded.

Lance stepped to the side to let them in. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Long story," Slade grunted.

Thea shot out of her seat when she saw Slade. "Thank God you're here. Did Shado..."

Slade nodded.

"All right," Lance said, looking over to Yao Fei. "He's here now, the officers are outside. Now, what is Mirakuru?"

Slade looked to Yao Fei. "That's what they wanted?" he asked, taking his daughter into his arms. He kissed her head, talking softly to her.

"That's what Fyers said." Yao Fei said, hinting to Lance with his head.

"What did he say exactly?" Slade asked the detective.

Lance scowled. "They wanted the Mirakuru, Oliver proved he had it."

Slade shook his head. "Oliver does not have it."

"He said that Rose passed it to him."

There was a sharp intake of breath from all those who knew what that meant. Rose had the Mirakuru.

Slade looked down to Rose. "That's why they wanted her." he took a breath, for the first time in so long, he did not feel anger, he felt pure sadness, guilt. "I'm sorry." he whispered to her. He could feel the heat in the corner of his eyes but held the emotions down. He had sentenced his own child to suffer the Mirakuru.

"Wait, why would they want Rose?" Laurel spoke up. "She's just a baby."

Slade ignored her. "Did he say anything else?"

"Just one more thing. Check the tracker." Lance said.

Slade looked over to the detective with wide eyes. Of course, the man who had stabbed him, he had the Mirakuru. He knew this before but this could be their way of tracking down Oliver. "That's how they got it," he turned to Yao Fei and Shado. "The man who attacked me, he ran away with a knife of my blood. That's how they got the Mirakuru. He was the one who attacked Oliver and Fyers. They wanted Rose as their supply had or was running out."

"How do you know that, supply of what exactly and what do you mean by them?" Lance said. Nothing mad sense.

"Mirakuru is a substance, that can be injected into the bloodstream. It becomes part of that person, producing cells in the bone barrow that affect the entire body. When blood is taken and stripped away, leaving only the Mirakuru. It can be injected into another, giving them the same qualities. Also, when Mirakuru blood is passed straight to another's bloodstream, it can lend a person it's abilities without fusing with them completely."

"What abilities? The hell are you talking about?"

"Healing and strength way beyond human comprehension."

Lance's eyebrows lowered. "This is no time for jokes."

Slade looked over to Shado. She nodded before leaving the room.

"This is no joke," Slade said, "The tracker will mean that we may have a chance to find Oliver."

"Wait," Thea spoke up. " **That** tracker?"

Slade nodded.

Thea stood, moving away from her mother and taking a seat on a single leather chair. "I can't believe this."

Walter gave Slade a dirty look. "Whatever this is, you got Thea involved in it?"

" **I** didn't. Even if I tried to change that, she is too much like her brother. Too stubborn," he walked over to Yao Fei, passing Rose back to him. Just in time too, as Shado walked back into the room with a two foot metal candle stand, the pole over an inch in diameter.

"It was the best thing I could find."

"It's fine," Slade said. He took it from her and in his one hand, he squeezed the tube of metal, it groaned softly as it bended in, black paint flaking off. Slade did not stop, the stand completely falling into it's self, and then it snapped, one half falling to the floor.


	18. The Matter of Slade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to make something clear.
> 
> You may be wondering why I chose a head of head of pediatrics to be Oliver's doctor. The blood test to find out why Oliver was ill, found chemicals related to pregnancy, normally it would go to went to a doctor who could confirm it, but as it was a male pregnancy, it went right to the head. Oliver's doctor dealt with children and babies, and babies still in the parent for many years, else he would not be the Head. Meaning he would know how to do an ultra sound, what to look out for and how to parent's help to look after the baby.
> 
> All the parent will need is to get regular scans, blood tests, and in medication due to male pregnancy babies being easily lost. And if the doctor was unsure, he could just show a recording of a scan to expert or so on. Had Oliver or Rose suffered any issues, then yes, he would have had to have met another doctor. The Mirakuru was missed due to the blood tests only looking for certain signs.
> 
> Also, I think the fact that on the show you can cure the person of Mirakuru just like that is shit. Slade should have gone into a coma or something.

_Slade cocked his head, watching Oliver with half-lidded eyes and a smile on his full lips._

_The blonde was due in a few weeks, although their baby would be 'born' in just over two weeks, the date of which, had just this morning been set. Oliver was handling it as well as could be expected. He was pacing around in only his baggy paternity pants, his chest jerking with shattered breaths as he panicked over his surgery and about being a father and what to do after in regards to taking over for Yao Fei as the hood, and-_

_"You'll be fine."_

_"You don't know that!" Oliver span around._

_Slade stood from Oliver's bed and stepped over to his partner, placing his large hands on Ollie's hips, a hand sliding up to rest on his baby bump. "I know that you look beautiful."_

_Oliver laughed. "Flatterer."_

_Slade smirked. "You'll be fine," he said, before kissing the other's cheek. "I won't let anything happen to you."_

_Oliver wrapped his arms around Slade, lowering his head to the man's shoulder. "At least Anatoli and Fyers will be here soon. I've missed them both."_

_Slade kissed Oliver's forehead, hand still lovingly stroking the bump that housed their child._

* * *

To see such strength, done with such ease, was mind-boggling. There was complete astounded silence as the second half of the metal stand clanged on the wooden floor, the prints of his fingers clear in the metal.

Slade looked over the group, they all looked at him in pure disbelief, eyes wide, those who stood even when as far take a step back.

"What are you?" Thea asked.

"Rude."

Yao Fei frowned at Slade's slow and weak voiced reply. Then he took notice of the groves in the candle stand. "Are you okay?"

Slade hummed, looking over to the other man. "I'm fine," He followed the man's eyes. The metal had red patches on it. He lifted his hand to find it stained with blood, then down to his dark shirt, where the blood was seeping though from where he had held away the pain. "Ah, crap."

"Why are you still bleeding?"

Lance looked at the Chinese man, then back to the Aussie. Was that really what he was asking? "What's going on?" he asked himself.

"I was shot. The bullets must have been laced with something that was affecting my healing process. We had to remove them," The fact that his body had not pushed them out, showed that the poison was strong if his body was taking priority on it. He was lucky the bullets had not punctured his liver or stomach, having the acids spill into your insides was very painful and took a long time to heal, along with a day -at least- to repair the organs, repair the harm done by the acids and replace the acids.

"You were shot?!" Tommy exclaimed.

"You should go to a hospital," Laurel said, looking at the man in concern.

"I'll be back to full strength in twelve hours," After all, the loss of blood was minimal and although his intestines had been hit -which very nearly lead to Diggle throwing up, according to Shado, as Slade had been out cold- he should heal fine, once the poison was out of his system. The blood could even be a sigh that he was in fact healing fully, that his body was doing something, rather than being stuck in a sort of stasis.

"What do you mean, you had to removed them?" Lance asked, fearing what he already thought.

Shado slid her hand into her pocket, taking out a ball of tissue paper. She stepped over to the coffee table and let it fall open. The three bits of metal gave thumping echoes as they hit the glass. They were thankful clear of blood but still possibly dangerous.

Lance eyed the bullets for a few seconds before rolling his eyes with a exhale. "Of course. Just cut them out like a completely normal human being. And you are just going to heal within a day because that is entirely possible," his voice was full of sarcasm. "Who shot you anyway?"

"In due course," Slade assured, untying the keffiyeh he had to wear at all times to hide the non-existence of the mark on his neck. The Middle Eastern scarf had been useful against sand brought up into his face, by the wind, in was also useful in fires to clear the air he breathed, and as a last resort, a bandage. Slade had given it to Oliver on their last trip to Russia, for a non-Bratva related issue, due to the cold winds that had snuck down his neck, under his coat. Now the idem had become a bit of a male fashion accessory according to Tommy, which Slade found both amusing and irritating.

"Do you remember when my throat had been cut? You were there for the stitching," Slade said pulling away the item and tilting his head to further expose the area.

"Yes, I-" Lance choked on his words, his lungs stopped as if they had been frozen solid. No healed wound, no scar. Nothing.

"It took longer to heal as the cut was much deeper than you know."

Lance blinked. Still stunned. "How deep?"

"My jugular."

"That's not possible," Walter said firmly.

"Exactly the reason I had to call for someone to clean it up," The Bratva was a very useful loyalty to have, although each favour required one in return if you wanted to keep their respect and help. Slade and Oliver had managed to slip one by them, pretending to kill a man. The others were less dramatic and Oliver had standards he wanted to keep. Although, with Anatoli in the city, the tables were turned and the Bratva asked for nothing from today's favours.

Lance could not believe what he was hearing. "You? You had the crime scene cleaned?"

Slade just carried on. "Well, the two or so pints on the floor would not have matched my wound or the fact that I was not dead. So yes, I had it cleaned."

Tommy shook his head. "This is insane. This can't be real," he said, walking away, a hand running through his black hair. He turned back. "You're invincible."

"I'm not," Slade shook his head, feeling his hand shake lightly as he raised it to his injury. He was no longer bleeding but he was wet and sticky, and dizzy. He grunted as he moved to sit on the floor with crossed legs "I got the Mirakuru in its purest form as a well to stop me from dying. I would have never taken it otherwise," his eyes fell shut, remembering the powerless look on Oliver's face as he helped him to the submarine, the fear deep in his blue eyes. He took the drug, there was no way he was leaving Oliver behind. Even if he had Yao Fei, Shado, Sara and a new found friendship in Fyers.

He remembered how he had grabbed Fyers' arm as the rest set to work in finding the Mirakuru. He told the Englishman that he did not care if he was different, if he had changed, just ordered him to protect Oliver. To this day, Slade never knew why he felt the need to tell Fyers that, he was likely the person least likely to do so, out of the group, even Sara. Maybe he thought that the words of a dying man, someone who had kept him alive, and who was asking him to do the same for another, who had spared his life, would make a difference. It was easy to say that Fyers would now, maybe the same could have been said for back then.

"Another had it in that form too. Wade Wilson, no relation," he pointed out. "He and many others were being held captive by a man, looking for the Mirakuru, to test it. He lived, many died."

A cold chill descended over the group, the truth that was not even fully revealed. The torture, the fear and the knowledge that it would never end.

"Fyers and Oliver were caught but escaped," Slade smiled. Oliver had grown up so much. He was not that scared kid he used to be. "That was where they found Anatoli. He didn't believe Oliver when he said he would come back for him and the others."

"He never did learn not to," Yao Fei commented, his eyes on Rose, playing with her blonde locks.

Slade chuckled softly. "Yeah. I'm glad," then he started to laugh, holding his hand to his wound as his laughter tugged at it.

"What?" Shado asked.

Slade shook his head, smirking. "I just realised that the last time someone had to dig a bullet out of me, it was Oliver and Fyers had shot me."

Thea frowned, opening her mouth a few times but unable to say the words. "Okay, what is with that sentence?"

"We did not always used to get on," Slade said, glancing over to Yao Fei, who avoiding looking at Thea. Slade thought about making a comment that Oliver's first scar would have been Fyers doing too but someone had been him to the punch, but he did not. His smile fell. Thinking back to those times were funny, even if others would doubt so. It had been their life after all, but bringing it up may not be the best idea. Plus, Oliver had been kidnapped, Fyers shot. It was not the time for laughter.

He turned back to Lance, who like the rest of the group, were watching them with question. "Today. The man who took Oliver had a weaker level, as it was a by-product taken from my blood. Him and his friends were about half as strong but if they mass produce it, I will be no match. I will get Oliver back and I won't let anyone near my daughter but this is bigger than all of us. We can't let knowledge of Mirakuru leave this room. Mirakuru is a very dangerous weapon."

"There are others?" Lance questioned.

"Who do you think shot me?" Slade raised a brow.

"How many?"

"Five. All trained, all had Mirakuru. All are now dead."

* * *

Logan tapped on the open office door with his knuckle. "You wanted to see me?"

Malcolm nodded.

His plans had all gone wrong. He had a new source but it was Oliver and he was too weak to give them anything at this time. All his men but one, were dead. Roy had panicked and ran away after losing his memory, according to Logan. It was unclear where the man's loyalties lie but he would never follow Malcolm's plan, knowing what he did. Logan needed to be reset like a damaged computer. Slade was stronger than anything they could make, and he was trained. With that in mind, Malcolm remembered an old theory, originally thought of by Robert Queen, even planned and designed but never made. Both because it was impossible and more importantly, something like that should never happen. It was no more than a theory for the sake of pondering the possibilities... But Malcolm could make it happen, and if things went wrong and Logan died? Then that was one less issue to deal with.

"Roy should be pretty panicked. Running around the city, with no memory of who he is or who his family are," Malcolm sighed, his face full of worry. "But we'll find him and help him as much as we can."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Malcolm's lips twitched, the corners raising into a smile, his eyes almost appearing dark. "I have a plan."

Logan's eyes flew wide, a yell caught in his throat as he felt a sharp pain in his back, followed by another. His vision started to darken, his legs gave out, he was unconscious before he hit the floor.

"Hmm," Eddie Brock strolled up to the door way, the back of the dart gun balanced on shoulder, hanging from his bent back wrist. He kicked Logan's thigh with the toe of his boot. No answer. He smiled. "And you thought he would notice," He put the safety back on and tucked the weapon behind his jeans, before he leant down and grabbed hold of the man, lifting him onto his shoulder. "Fuck, he's heavy," Eddie huffed as he stood, staggering back a step.

Malcolm moved passed, heading over to the lab. Eddie following along behind.

* * *

In hindsight, stating casually that you just killed five people was begging to cause an uproar.

"In self-defence," Slade clarified at the mixture of shocked, frightened and not overly good, looks he was getting. Truth be told, Slade did not think they would kill him -well, not in till he started killing them- as the bag they had carried was loaded with dart guns. They wanted to catch him. "They wanted the Mirakuru."

"And they got Oliver," Thea said, "Someone who doesn't have it."

"He's a good actor. He can buy us time but no longer than a few days at most," Slade placed a hand on the wooden boards and pushed himself up with a hard shove. "But we have to find him," he's dark eyes shot to Moira. The woman gulped but nodded. They would have to talk.

"This attack. Where did it happen?" Lance asked.

"I will explain all of that after but right now," Slade said, pulling open the secret compartment from his leather jacket and pulled out his ASIS identification and stepped over to the Sargent, holding it open in his face. Agents did have form of identification, like the FBI, but they were rarely used in his sector.

Slade realised as he held out his arm, that his hand was shifting almost uncontrollably. He forced himself still but he could feel the spasms in his arm, which were only growing stronger.

Lance took the ID, not believing his eyes. It did go to explaining a lot of the Aussie's strange actions. "ASIS agent?"

"I'm what you would call, a spy-"

"You're a spy?" Tommy blinked. "Like James Bond?"

"James Bond was a British Secret Service agent, I am the same but from Australia. So, yes. Technically. Although, I quit to come here to live."

Thea found herself smiling for the first time since she heard of her bother's kidnapping. She watched the small smile that pulled at Slade's lips, it was warm, then a saddened look appeared in his eyes.

"So, ASIS are part of this?" Lance asked.

Slade nodded. "Yes," No, they were not. Mirakuru was safe with no one. In time, hopefully, Slade's Mirakuru blood would dilute and disappear through his generations of children and grandchildren, like blue irises against the vast majority and dominance of browns and greens. Governments meant well but as A.R.G.U.S. had shown him with their many groups, of what were pretty much Suicide Squads, if someone or something was useful, they would be used. If something like Mirakuru, something that made a person invincible, super strong and fast, was shown to them. They would take it. Yeah, Slade, Rose and everyone they cared about would surely be given a worry free life but at the cost of becoming human test subjects or war machines. So, no. Slade was never going to tell them, although making Lance believe so, would save him a lot of time.

"Everything I know, they know. So we need to stop this now, while we still have time," Slade said, taking back the ID.

"How are you feeling?" Shado asked.

Slade smirked as he turned back to the woman. He lifted his shirt with a trembling hand. A large square of thick contact was attached to him, berried by layers of bandages. He moved his hands to the back, undoing the knots, which took several seconds, before lifting his shirt again, pulling away the material, which was completely soaked with thick almost black, blood. A lot of which was already clumped together in clots from his advanced healing. His skin was stained red but all that was left of their home done surgery was a long cut, which was only a centimetre or two deep, the long wire of the stitches dumped on the cotton pad. He balled up the mess of material, dropping it down, next to the bullets on the coffee table.

"You're not suppose to heal _that_ fast," Shado scolded, folding her arms.

"Adrenaline speeds up the healing process," he explained, raising a hand. He had to hold them down to limit the unstoppable shaking. "Which requires more Mirakuru, meaning more blood."

"And even more blood to keep the rest of your body working," Yao Fei added. "You are already over using your abilities," Slade focusing his energy to heal within minutes was already a risk task, add to the fact that his body had to get rid of the poison and restore all the blood that was being used quicker than it was being made, making everything work that much quicker, not just to have him healed but back to full fighting strength within several hours. The strength and speed, it was all a way to release the excess energy, nothing more. And Slade did not have any to spare, not by the way he was acting. "Your body can only take so much."

"Wait. What happens if he over uses it?" Laurel asked.

Shado turned to the young lawyer. "The overuse takes its toll on his brain-"

"Shado," Slade growled, pinching the bridge of his nose, turning from the group as all this stress was giving him a headache. He was bound to dehydrated, thinking about it.

"Which leads to hallucinations," Shado continued, voice taking a sour tone, most likely as he had cut her off.

"Hallucinations affects my sight, hearing, touch and smell. We think that it should only really affect those with a pure dose and rarely at that. Plus, it happened once, a long time ago."

"You were hallucinating for three days straight and you would have given Ivo all the Mirakuru."

"I thought it was the best chance we had."

Shado stomped over to stand in front of him. "It wasn't!"

"I had to protect Oliver. I-"

"Protect him?" Shado sighed, a grin pulling at her lips. "He's gone," she shook her head, hair waving side to side. "You couldn't protect him."

"I will get him back." Slade lowered his brows, feeling his fists shake with a growing anger.

"And what about Rose?"

Slade felt his heart skip a beat, his gut tie in knots. Barely a dose or not, Rose had the Mirakuru. She would always be in danger and she had a much higher risk of ill mental heath. He had done that to her.

"You can't save her either."

Slade shook his head, trying to get rid of those thoughts.

"It's all your fault."

"I can't..." Fix it.

"Slade?"

Slade blinked. He turned to see Shado standing there beside him. Slade turned back to see the Shado he had been talking to, what must have been a creation of his mind, still standing there, her grin pulling out further.

"That's..." Slade sighed. "Just wonderful," He turned back to the real Shado, still fully aware of the fake one that followed his vision, standing behind Shado to put her chin on her shoulder. Their long black hair blending together and seriously messing with the Aussie's mind. Slade just tried to ignore it. "What was the last thing you said to me?"

Shado placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "That the Mirakuru takes a toll on your brain."

Slade squeezed his eyes close. Crap.

"Are you still seeing things?"

Fake Shado wiggled her eyebrows.

"Just a little..." Slade frowned and switched to Mandarin. _"Fake you is a total bitch."_

Fake Shado took in a dramatic breath. "Well, no shit."

"That's just great," Slade mumbled under his breath. He zipped up his leather jacket, to hide the wound. He needed air. "I'm going to need to go sort some things with Anatoli and check on Fyers," he huffed. He did not know how long the two had been together, but if Anatoli cared for Fyers, like Slade did Oliver, then the man must have been going through hell. "Will you be alright here?"

Shado nodded. "We'll be fine," Slade knew that they were fully capable, he must have been worried from all that had happened. Plus, the Mirakuru certainly had him on edge.

_"Talk to the mother. See what she knows."_

She nodded again.

"I'll drop you off," Lance said, "We'll need to talk about the men who shot you," The Sargent was still suspicious about this man. He could have been lying, although Lance had no idea of how to get in contact with ASIS, and Slade was right, the wrong people learning of the Mirakuru's existence would be very bad. So, for now he was going to play by ear and see what he could find out.

"Alright."

Yao Fei stepped over to Slade, Rose was making the most adorable light grunts and soft squeals of happiness as the man turned her to see her father. "You should say goodbye before you go," Yao Fei hoped that this would help calm the Australian. The only person who had ever been able to do that, when the Mirakuru got to him, was Oliver. Whether it was clasping his hand, or saying just the right words. Oliver could always help the older man to calm, to think clearly, and most importantly, stop the hallucinations.

Slade looked away, never even meeting Rose's dark brown eyes. He was too strong, too insane. "We should go," he said, heading for the door.

Rose grunted, confused by where her father had gone. Yao Fei held her close.

The room suddenly felt so cold as Slade stepped out of it, his eyes dark and focused. He would get his love back, and nothing, no one was going to stop him. His heart ached as he heard Rose whine.

He needed Oliver.

* * *

The second the nurse said Anatoli could see Fyers, giving him the room number, the Russian ran passed the woman, ignoring her calls after him. He bolted down the halls, checking every door number as he went, jumping around people like they were the obstacle courses he had trained with in the Russian navy, and again in the KGB.

He stopped as he spotted a door, four numbers short of the one he wanted. He took a breath and moved forward.

A man excited the room, a Doctor. Anatoli was about to go right past him, when he recognised the man. It was that Doctor Clark, Oliver's Doctor when he had Rose.

There was a moment where Anatoli's life froze like picture, catching the most painful moment of his life. He looked past the Doctor to see Fyers sitting in a hospital bed. There was no second that was spared to wonder, let alone ask, why Fyers was wide awake if he had just got out of surgery.

The Englishman had a wire for oxygen running across his cupid's bow, a heart monitor beside him that was sounding rather frequently. His eyes were red like he had been crying, his hands covering his belly like he was protecting something.

Fyers saw Anatoli, he closed his eyes, shoulders shaking with sobs. "I'm sorry..."

And it that moment, Anatoli knew. For the first time since the Amazo, since Ivo had kept him for five months, when he was broken, believing that he would die in pain, meaninglessly, after all those years that he fought to stay alive, after all that life had thrown at him. He felt such a pain of loss and hopelessness, that he wished that he could just fall out of existence.


	19. The Matter of Oliver

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will not be a happy chapter (for the most part) but stick with me.
> 
> Also, I've had to split the chapter into two, I was nearly done when I realised this, so the next chapter will be out in a few days. And we'll get to see Fyers again.

Lance and Slade took seats in the waiting room, having been told that Anatoli was speaking with Fyers and they would not be able to see him just yet. The news that Fyers was out of critical condition, was good, but the woman at reception would not say anymore, it did not seem like she knew anything else.

"So..." Lance started.

"Just ask," Slade growled sharply.

"Don't be rude."

Slade blinked at the familiar voice, his breath catching in his chest. The moment he turned and saw that wicked grin, he knew it was just his mind being cruel.

"Slade? What's wrong?" The illusion of Oliver flattered his eyelashes innocently.

"Can you tell when you're hallucinating?" Lance asked.

Slade turned back to the Sargent, ignoring the tricks his mind was playing on him, knowing it would only get worse. "Not always," he sighed, the back of head hitting the wall.

"What happened?" Lance asked, clarifying, "The last time. How bad did it get?"

Slade's eyes twitched as he saw blonde move from the corner of his vision. Oliver had stood and was heading over to the reception desk, hanging over and searching for something. Slade had a fairly good idea what his plan was, at least his end goal, he prayed that the creation of his mind would not, but he knew that he had no control over what he saw.

"The whole thing lasted for three days. It was only ever Oliver, seeing Shado was new..." Slade frowned. "Well, as far as I know anyway. The same event kept happening over and over, just in different ways."

"What was it?"

Slade bit at the inside of his cheek. At that time, it had been the worse moment of his life. He had never felt such pain, his body cold. "The first time it happened, Oliver and I were out for-"

Lance watched as Slade had his eyes dead set on the counter, eyes wide. They slammed shut. He must have seen something, something horrible by the look on his face.

"To do some target practice with a hand gun," Slade finished, opening his eyes but keeping them to the floor. "And fully believing it was Oliver-" he flinched at the sudden thwack and a wet suction sound from removable. "He shot himself in the head," There was another strike, making a squelch sound, this had Slade cringing.

Slade remembered the whole event just happened, no warning. Oliver stepped up to Slade and kissed him on the lips, a slow intimate kiss, before stepping back and blowing a whole through his head. Slade had felt like a part of him had died. He had took Oliver into his arms, kissing his forehead and then moved his eyelids down. He could not bare to see those bright blue eyes so empty, lifeless. He sat there for what felt like hours, tears running down his cheeks.

"It was not until the real Oliver, what I thought was, showed up, that the first fake disappeared," There was another squelch, this one sounded much softer, which made Slade feel sick. "This kept happening-" The was another. "Again," Another. "And again," Slade dug his nails into the palm of his other hand, allowing the pain to grow, even as he felt the warmth of blood. "I had to protect him," he continued. He did not look. He would not look. "And in doing so, I very nearly did something unbelievably stupid but Oliver stopped me."

The Australian almost wondered if he was being given a break from his insanity, the fake Oliver had stopped the self-mutilation. However, just as that thought fluttered through his mind, as if to spite him, Oliver started again. This time the hits were rapid, stab after stab. After a few seconds, it started to sound easy, like what he was hitting was all mashed up, but he did not cease for a while longer. When he did stop, it was with one last hard strike, it was wet yet dull, like what he had hit was thick muscle.

"Is that what you're seeing right now?" Lance's voice cut through the fog, sounding more concerned than worried. "How bad is it?"

Slade kept his eyes to the floor for a few moments longer. He glanced to the man.

Lance was not looking at Slade like he was as insane as he was, the Aussie had been trained to hide his emotions, he was glad that he could still do that, he still had his uses.

Slade focused, his knuckles cracking. He had to face this. It was all in his head. It was not real. He looked up... And wished he had not.

Oliver had his face up to the ceiling and he had what used to be a black plastic pen sticking out from his right eye socket. The pen and his hand were red, completely drenched in blood, the floor around him was sparsely covered by blood droplets.

Oliver started to cackle, a dark, mad smile staining his features. He moved his face down. What was once his right eye, was now nothing but soup, a blend of red with a few tears of white. The liquid ran down his cheek slowly but in clots, like a whisked raw egg. The last of the thick gloop ran down the plastic barrel as his face stared down at the floor.

"Very," Slade's voice was barely audible.

Lance said nothing for about half a minuet, watching as Slade covered his eyes with his hand, but not before stroking his closed eyelids, his lips pressing hard together as his hand shook. Lance was unsure if that had started again or if it had ever stopped, it was hard to say with Slade's healing factor.

The Sargent stood. "I'll get us some coffee. It's been a long night," He looked out the window to the dark night sky, then to a clock. In a couple of hours the sun would raise.

* * *

Oliver sat on the single bed, which creaked every time he shifted ever so slightly. The bedspread, walls and tiled floor were all bright white, and the single light was blindingly bright. There were no windows, except the one in the metal door. There was a sink, a toilet and a camera in the corner of the room, above the toilet and facing out to add just the tiniest bit of privacy.

The blonde leered at the camera, eyebrow twitching at the blinking red light. "Fuck you," He growled. He had been here for hours, thrown in the room by the same man who had shot Fyers... Who killed his baby.

Oliver stood. He knelt down, moving slowly as his belly was still pretty swollen. He felt the tiles. He would need to hit it with something hard to made them crack, but once out, they would fall apart easily. Then he spotted the toilet, or more importantly the white rectangular porcelain cover for the back, a roof for where the water was stored. Oliver stepped over and removed the cover, his height and the length of the idem meaning he would not have to stand on the toilet bowl when he acted. Oliver swung with both his arms, smacking the camera off the wall with the shattering porcelain. There was a loud smash and his weapon had broken but it had done its job.

Oliver leant against the wall, panting; both from anger and from lack of energy. The Mirakuru may have healed him but he doubted there was any left in his system. He needed food, water and rest. He pushed himself to the sink. He had already slept for sometime, figuring it was best to just do it, even if he was in no mood to.

He let what was left in his hand, fall to the floor, ignoring the clatter in favour of cupping his hands and bringing water to his lips. He took a few gulps, then splashed the cool water onto his face. Once he was finished, on his way back to the bed, the only remotely comfortable thing in this prison, he spotted the shards of porcelain. He picked a few big pieces up. They were sturdy and sharp. He smirked and sat down on the bed.

He used one of the pieces to wear away at the side of the mattress, slipping most of them inside. The strongest he kept out, taking the pillow case from his pillow and wrapping it around the shard, to protect himself from injury. A perfect weapon. This was why prisons had fixed metal toilets.

Oliver lay down on his side, facing the door, hiding the shiv under his pillow. He sighed, body curling into himself, while his hand naturedly went to his bump. His already down expression fell further. He closed his eyes, stroking his belly. He tried to imagine he was in bed, back at the manor, Slade lying behind him, his baby still waiting in his belly. When life was good. He thought about holding Thea Rose in his arms, cuddling up with Slade on his sofa. Maybe he would text Fyers, asking about his morning sickness, which he was suffering from pretty badly...

Oliver's shoulders started to shake, sobs tugging at his chest. His daughter was cursed with the Mirakuru, Fyers and Anatoli had lost their child, his brother might have been dead, and he just missed Slade so much, that this fact alone, with his still overly sensitive emotions, was enough to make him want to cry. He pulled his knees to his bump, protecting something that was no longer there. His hand went over his mouth, holding down his emotions in case there was a microphone in the room.

He would not let them hear him cry.

* * *

"Ah, my friend."

Slade looked over to see Anatoli coming over to the two of them, his eyes were red and swollen, they were dull, yet brightening with a fire of determination.

"Lance? Is there a Russian guy talking to me." Slade said to the other man under his breath.

Lance raised an eyebrow but understood the concern. It would be comical if the situation was not so serious. "Yes."

"Good," Slade stood, heading over to the Russian. He had managed to block out the image of Oliver leant over, a pen in his brain, and after a while it disappeared. Although seeing things was awful, the waiting almost felt worse, knowing any minuet it would start all over again. "It's good to see you too," Slade smiled, clamping a hand on the man's shoulder.

"You look a little wound up," Anatoli commented.

"Over use of the Mirakuru. I'm hallucinating, like I did on the island."

Anatoli blinked. He turned to Lance. "I take it he knows."

"He knows," Lance confirmed.

"How is Fyers?" Slade asked.

Anatoli eyes dimmed, the corner of his lips pulling down. "He's alive but by no means is he okay."

Slade held out his coffee. "You're going to need this more than me."

Anatoli snorted, glancing at the mostly full paper cup. "Thank you," he took the cup, taking a sip. He sighed. "Fyers and I need to talk to you about something."

Slade nodded. He turned to Lance. "I'll have to talk to you later. Shado will have to fill you in to all that happened."

Lance hummed. "Alright," he stood, grabbing an old receipt from his pocket, along with a pen which he used to scribble down a number. "Cab company. Good for early mornings."

Slade took the piece of paper with a grin. "Thanks."

Lance nodded. He took his leave.

Slade followed Anatoli to the elevator, watching the man from the corner of his eye.

"Today has been a total shit storm?" Anatoli said, not sure on his wording.

Slade chuckled. "Yeah. It has."

"Any clues to where Oliver is?"

"The guy who took Oliver-" and stabbed Fyers. Slade frowned as he saw Anatoli look away. "He was the same guy who stabbed me ages ago. He got the Mirakuru. Now he has it and a few friends of his, who attacked me and are now dead."

Anatoli's head shot back around. "What about the first guy."

"I have not heard anything about him since Oliver convinced him that he had the Mirakuru."

"Rose passed on the healing abilities."

Slade nodded, even though he knew it was a statement. "She has it," he said, his voice coming out so low and worn that it was very nearly impossible to decipher.


	20. The Matter of Fyers

Eddie Brock looked through the window to Oliver's cell, to see said man sitting on the bed, glaring right at him. Eddie smirked and opened the door.

"Are you going to be good?"

Oliver just blinked. Completely uncaring. "When have I ever been good?"

"So I've heard," Eddie laughed. He stepped into the room, placing a tray of food onto the bed, his eyes never leaving the death glares he was receiving. "Look. You're friend is alive so stop-"

"And the baby in his belly," Oliver demanded, using that moment to stretch his arm causally under the pillow. "What about them?"

Eddie's expression did fall at that. "Baby?"

For that moment, the man did seem deeply guilty but he shook it off. No matter, it was all the time Oliver needed.

* * *

Anatoli grabbed Slade's shoulder, ignoring his flinch in favour of jerking his limb. "You and Oliver are amazing parents. You can handle this."

Slade smiled. "I don't know if Oliver got the chance to tell you," The elevator tinged as they got to their desired floor. "But Oliver and I were deciding Godparents," they stepped out. "Yao Fei, Moira, and you and Fyers, who get the final decision."

Anatoli stopped, only just remembering to get out of the way of the mental doors. "You want the two of us to decide where Rose would go?"

Slade looked back. "Oliver wanted the two of you to be named as Godparents. He was hinting at a joint decision. It would have been strange had I not over heard Oliver and Fyers talking about the two of you being together."

Anatoli seemed to sour further. "That man shot him in the belly."

"So I've been told."

"He's pregnant."

Slade's eyes flew open. No. Wait... "The baby's okay?"

"Still alive but removing the bullet will kill them," Anatoli started walking again, passing Slade. "Which leaves one option."

Slade blinked but followed. "You want to use the Mirakuru."

"Just your blood. Enough to heal Fyers and our baby."

Slade nodded. "There should be no long term effect but it is risky."

"Is there any other option?"

Slade sighed. "I'm still recovering after being shot three times with poised bullets but I have some blood packs in case of emergencies. Fyers needs them far more than I do."

Anatoli stopped again, a smile that was badly needed was pulling at his lips. "Thank you. The Bratva is yours to use to find Oliver."

Slade nodded. It was hell of a tool to have.

* * *

Thea glanced up as an officer stepped into the room, Roy at his side. She stood and ran over to him, throwing her arms around her boyfriend.

Roy held her close. "Are you okay?"

"It's been a long day," Thea mumbled. Once the officer left, she pulled back and asked, "Where have you been?"

Roy shook his head. "No where important. I'm sorry I did not get here sooner. I heard about your brother on the news."

Thea hugged her other half again, needing to have him close.

Roy smiled. Then he sighed, soft enough to not be noticed. He did not know how true his abilities were from the drug supposedly in his system, but it was not something he could ignore. Not when the man who had kidnapped and injected him was a family friend of his girlfriend. For now however, that would have to wait. For the time being, Thea needed him. She came first.

He would not allow her to be sad. He would find Oliver by his own if he had to. Thea would be safe, she would be happy. He would not let anyone hurt her in any way shape or form. She was his and he was hers, and nothing would ever stand between them. Ever!

"Ah, careful," Thea whined, stumbling into Rot's chest as he pulled her closer, too close.

Roy came back to his senses when he felt his girlfriend's hands pushing against his chest. He opened his arms, realising he was practically crushing her. "Sorry."

Thea shook her head. "It's fine," She frowned. Why did he look so worried. "You okay?"

Roy nodded. "I'm fine," he lied. He blinked when he hear high-pitched cries start to rumble. "Is that Rose crying?" He asked, looking into the living room. Moira and Walter were sat on a sofa, the first of whom kept fidgeting like she was fighting the urge to get up but to do what was unclear, she probably just needed to move, to feel like she was doing something. Tommy and Laurel were also sat down, looking very uncomfortable. They were all watching the news which was running a report on Oliver's disappearance.

Thea listened out and after a few seconds, she caught the muffled whines. "You're hearing is good. Yeah, Yao Fei was putting her to bed. It hours before but he got her quite, after all that happened to Oliver and Fyers."

Roy put an arm around her shoulders, holding her to his chest.

Thea wrapped her arms around him, nuzzling her cheek into him. "Then Slade got here, and once he left, she started all over again. She needs her dads."

Roy kissed her head. "Why did he leave?"

"To go see Fyers in hospital. He was shot," Thea pulled away. "I'm going to go see if I can help."

Roy nodded in understanding. Giving her a peck on the lips before she went.

The young man sat down on a recliner, Moira did not even look at him, he imagined it was not the best time to even great her. The vibe in the room was thick with sadness and discomfort. The only person who took notice that he was there was Tommy, with a polite smile. As he sat there, he could hear Yao Fei singing softly to Rose in what he guessed to be Mandarin, followed by Thea coming over and cooing to her. It was then that he really questioned his senses, when no one else seemed hear the sounds. Maybe they could not hear them over the TV... But why could he? And so clearing, like Rose had been in his arms?

* * *

Slade entered the hospital room, thankful that Fyers had his own room. Said ex-merc was in bed, a hand resting protectively on his belly. He looked pale, Slade was not sure if that was just from his loss of blood or if the emotion stress was adding to it, but he would not be surprised.

The man had a jaw covered in blonde stubble, eyes sunken, and his hair was greasy. He was nothing like his usual self, all his finesse and grace, gone.

"Hi," Fyers greeted, his voice coming out worn and husky.

"How are you feeling?"

Fyers held a hand out to the chair beside him. "Okay. You don't look so healthy yourself."

Slade grunted as he took the seat. "Shot. Healing."

"Ah, right," Fyers nodded. He smiled slightly, managing to keep it as he continued. "Did Anatoli inform you about..."

Slade nodded. "I have blood packs which we can hook up."

"Alright," Fyers mumbled, his aqua eyes turning away.

Slade cocked a brow. "What's wrong?" He could believe how alike Fyers and Oliver were sometimes, how they spoke, the expressions they made, they both had the rare ability to carry a child, even their appearance to a point. Both had blonde hair, eyes a mixture of blue and green, but while Oliver's appeared deep green or blue like emeralds and sapphires, Fyers' were either a yellowish-green, or in bright lights, crystal blue. The older man's hair was also a darker shade of blonde, but all the same, they almost appeared related.

Fyers put a hand over his eyes, shoulders shaking from the surrealistic situation. He looked to his lover. "I didn't end things because I was pregnant, although it would still have ended things."

"Why?" Anatoli frowned, holding up his hands, waning to know.

"You would have to tell the Bratva, who would sure as hell would not like it, or you would have to leave, and I can't ask you to do that. I would hate to see who took your place," Fyers explained. He looked down to his non-visible bump, stroking his firm muscles, away from the injury, imagining there was a baby there but knowing they were not big enough. "I found out I was pregnant before I came to Starling, I thought that my trip back to England had made me sick. Do you two know how rare a male egg being produced, in the first place is?" He asked the two of them.

"About thirty present of the male population," Slade said. Such a thing was hard to track until studies were done testing the hormone levels in babies in the USA, Europe and a lot of Asia. The sheer number was shockingly high but it was only the likelihood of being able to make eggs, not stopping the testosterone from hindering the chance of pregnancy from ever happening. Stopping the testosterone from being produced as heavy had saved some pregnancies but for the rest, their body was just to aggressive an environment to house a baby. However, this was in the 1940s, people had grown used to the fact of life. Also men did have the tendency to over look the fact, both from embarrassment and the fact that they were not having anal sex, or being the bottom at least.

"Yes, now if we say that they all are gay, only twenty present could hold a baby to about the first term before their hormones killed it, two present of that could go on with treatment," Plus, eggs were produced every two mouths and instead of the eggs having about five days or so to be fertilised, the harsh hormones limited it to two. "Only ten present of these males can carry a baby to full term. So very rare and unlikely. Oliver was lucky, or maybe it was the Mirakuru."

Slade's expression froze. He had never considered something like that. Could the Mirakuru be the soul reason Rose was born, how she was perfectly healthy when she was premature, if only slightly? If she was raised right, mind not crippled by her parent's demons, nor creating ones of her own. If her mind was logical, her personally kind and giving. Would the Mirakuru be a gift, giving her the chance of life that would have never been possible without it? Even giving her a physical advantage over others.

Slade was pessimistic by nature, a glass half empty kind of guy, so obtuse to the idea that things would work out well, even when he had all he needed. His partner and child... Even if he only had Rose now, as much as he hated, but his mind left him thinking, that he could lose Oliver. He had Rose and he would never let her suffer. His chest pained by the memory of leaving her, even when it was purely for her well being, well, that's what he told himself.

"After Rose was born, I met with a doctor who told me I was showing the first signs of my body attempting to induce a miscarriage," Fyers said, "I tried the treatment but yesterday morning I was told that there was no remote hint of improvement..."

Anatoli took hold of Fyers' hand, needing to feel the other man, and at the same time, wanting to comfort him. He should never have had to deal with this, and even worse, all on his own.

The Russian felt his angry and sadness dimmer for the first time, when Fyers relaxed in his grip, followed by moving his hand so their fingers were intertwined. The Englishman's jaw tightened, trying so hard to stay strong, while all his strength crumbled, threatening to fall through the gaps. Tied together with hope alone. Or complete denial. Although, were they not the same thing at this point? That his child, their child could live?

* * *

Slade barely remembered to show his identification to the officers as he entered the Queen manor. He had got a taxi to Oliver's club, Verdant, to grab his blood packs, then back to hospital to hook them up to Fyers, then finally to the manor. All using the same taxi, which cost him a fair deal. He jogged into the living room; Moira, Walter, Laurel, Tommy, Thea's boyfriend... Roger? And Lance were there.

Taking a glance to the dinning room, he saw Shado coming his way, her laptop sitting on the large table.

His eyes flew wide. The tracker? "Did you?"

Shado shook her head. _"Nothing yet, and he won't answer when I call. I spoke with the mother. She told me who may have sent that man after you but I could not make her speak any further about why."_ she said in her native tongue.

Slade frowned. He would have to hold off what he needed to do for a while, even when every minuet felt like an hour. _"Who?"_

Shado looked over to the group, to Tommy.

Moira looked up at their talking, at their stares, and then away again. Everything she tied so hard to keep together was falling apart but her son, he was worth it. She entrusted them to protect her family, she preyed that Slade could.

 _"You're parent's friend,"_ Shado started, avoiding using names as it would give away who they were talking about, if anyone were to listen in. _"His father was the one who sunk the ship, who sent the man after you. Who we were trying to track. But she has no idea where he is being held."_

"Damn it," Slade growled, his hand gripping his hair. "We need to find him."

Shado nodded.

Slade took a deep breath. The cool oxygen filing his lungs. In and out. In and out. His body started to calm. He needed to keep a clear head and figure out a plan of some sort. First things first, he needed his team.

"Go see Fyers. I've given him a blood pack I had in storage, I can make my own a lot faster," That was true, she just did not need to know anymore. "He's needs it to get out a bullet they can't removed, It looks to be poisoned too," he lied. "We need them both here if we are to sort things out. Don't let the media see you. And be careful with Fyers. He's more hurt then he'll let on," He said, adding, "I have a car, my keys are in the kitchen," He ordered before making his leave, knowing that Shado would obey without thought. It was like being on the island again. They were an army now.

Lance stood from where he sat, speaking with the family. "Sla-"

"Not now," Slade moved straight pasted him. He followed the cries he knew all too well. The only family he had in this world connected by blood.

Slade jogged up the stairs, listening out so he could find his daughter. This lead him to Oliver's room. He did not pause. As soon as he opened that door, seeing Yao Fei's pacing around, trying to calm her down, while Thea was on her laptop, advising the man on how to hold her. Not even Oliver's distant smell could stop him. As much as it brought back the memories, the love and the pain, the fear of loss, Slade moved forward.

Yao Fei passed Rose to her father without a second thought. He knew the man had his doubts. The Mirakuru was a dangerous thing for the mind but Slade had a look of parental need to care in his dark eyes. He loved his daughter and he wanted to see her, hold her.

Slade held Rose to his large build, rocking back and forth like Yao Fei and Moira had shown him. "I'm here sweet pea, I'm here," He said softly to her, before shushing. "It's alright. I love you so much, and I'm sorry for even considering not being here. I'll never leave you again," he kissed her forehead. He smiled as she quietened down, still whining but not screeching. "I promise you. I will never leave you again."

Rose continued to cry but it was clear that she felt much safer in her father's arms by the way her wailing had almost completely stopped upon seeing him, simmering as she lay in his arms.

Slade played with her little hands and fingers, smiling genuinely for the first time in hours, when that man said he was going to take her away.

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapters will be longer but the story will not be as long as main Slade/Oliver story (I say that now...) and my other story will have more time put into it.


End file.
